


The Only Thing More Powerful

by Setari



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Anna is Bad At Politics, Fairy Tale Curses, Fairy Tale Elements, Family Dynamics, Good Hans (Disney), Hans (Disney) Redemption, Magic, Morally Ambiguous Trolls, Multi, Politics, Polyamory, Quests
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-08-22 20:35:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 65,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16604996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setari/pseuds/Setari
Summary: The Hans that returns to the Southern Isles is not the same as the one who left to attend a long-awaited coronation. In order to discover exactly what happened, his brothers drag him right back to Arendelle, much to everyone's displeasure. Only it turns out Hans was not the villain, and Kristoff and Anna join him on an epic quest to discover the only thing more powerful than such an ancient and powerful curse.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A birthday present for Katherine, who is one of the best friends I could ask for <3 Happy birthday!
> 
> (The whole thing has already been written, so updates should be pretty regular every week, barring any RL mishaps.)

The first look Hans got of the Southern Isles since he left only came as the ship was already bumping gently against the dock, and the crew exploded into a flurry of motion, securing the ship into place. It was only then that the Ranskan guards came to unlock his cell and haul him out onto the deck. It grated at Hans’ pride, the indignity of being frogmarched back to his _own country_ , especially by Ranskan men. The Southern Isles had a long-standing enmity with Ranska, and he hated Queen Elsa for that small bit of pettiness, sending him back on _this_ ship, almost more than he hated the fact that he’d failed.

He did take a small bit of satisfaction from the fact that, when the side of the ship touched the dock, he managed to keep his balance even while his guards staggered and almost lost their grip on him. But then he was distracted by the view of the stately square stone castle, the crowded capital city with its top-heavy houses, and the bustling port below. One of the docks, the one they had pulled into, had been surrounded by a small escort of guards, and there were three men, all with the royal red hair, waiting beside a carriage in the cleared space.

Hans had had a long time on the journey home to consider how he was going to play this. He couldn’t really deny any of the facts of what had happened without the charade falling apart eventually, and unless he got supremely lucky, he was going to have to put up with his family for a few more years before he could find another opportunity to escape them. So he would have to spin the facts into a narrative that they would understand. His family as a whole understood power and responsibility, as well as pride, although some more than others so he would play that angle.

He recognised the three men on the dock even from a distance, Levi by his naval uniform, Erik by his mop of curls, and Rune by his lanky build. He wanted to groan in disgust, but in all honesty, he couldn’t think of a combination that would have been any less aggravating, so he supposed he ought to count his blessing or something. While he was contemplating his brothers, the Ranskan Duke swept ahead to greet them, and no doubt to rub Hans’ failure in his brothers’ faces, and gloat over the fact that he’d gotten the opportunity to treat a Southern Isles royal like a common criminal.

He wanted to be able to take all of this in stride and act like it didn’t bother him in the slightest, but the indignity, and even worse, the weight of his brothers’ eyes on him, made him so furious he couldn’t keep all of it off his face. His family had always treated him like he was helpless, useless, the baby of the family, not capable enough for any real responsibility, and for his failure to be paraded in front of them made him sick with loathing.

Levi, at least, looked like he was almost as eager to gut the Ranskan Duke as Hans was, but Rune actually stepped forward like his concern for Hans had completely over-ridden his own dignity, and the concern on his face was pitching right over into pity. “Hans?” He asked, thankfully stopping after only that one step forwards. “Are you alright?”

Hans couldn’t decide what part of that was more annoying; that Rune thought he was fragile enough that he needed to ask, or that he’d actually asked in front of the blasted Duke. It was too much. The moment his feet hit the docks, he shrugged his way out of the guards’ holds. They made as if to grab him again, but then they caught sight of Levi’s fist tightening on the hilt of his sword, and hesitated. As if Hans needed Levi’s help. “I’m _fine_ , Rune.” He insisted, willing his brother to drop it as he straightened his rumpled jacket to buy himself a moment to regain his composure. Then he looked up, and inclined his head to the other two. “Levi. Erik.”

“Hans.” Levi returned, in a matching tone of cold disdain.

“I trust you received Queen Elsa’s letter.” The Duke interjected smarmily, earning him one of Levi’s more poisonous stares, but that only made the Duke tip his chin up haughtily and press on; “And that I don’t need to detail exactly what Hans attempted to-”

That was one indignity too many, and Hans’ resolve to let this all wash over him and pretend it was inconsequential crumbled to nothing. “That’s _Prince_ Hans.” He interrupted, voice smooth even in the grips of resentful fury. “I haven’t been disowned _yet_ , and I’ll thank you to remember my titles, _Jacques_.” The Duke looked incensed at the use of his first name, which was rather hypocritical of him, and Hans let him know that with a coolly raised eyebrow.

“ _Thank_ you, Your Grace,” Levi snapped, cutting off Jacques before he could respond to Hans’ needling, “for returning our brother. I trust you’ll have a pleasant journey home.” Jacques looked honestly more offended by that clipped, curt dismissal than anything Hans had said, and it only got worse when Levi promptly ignored the man entirely in favour of giving Hans a pointed look, jerking his head towards the carriage waiting for them, and turning on his heel to climb inside it.

“Please forgive my brother’s curtness. I’m sure you can understand that these events have been upsetting.” Rune leapt in, with a faintly pained smile. Hans left him to his attempts to smooth over the diplomatic relations with Ranska – a Sisyphean task, in Hans’ opinion – and followed Levi into the carriage, Erik on his heels.

“Not a subtle bone in your body, is there, Levi?” Hans asked, unable to keep himself from saying anything when the opening was _right there_ , and all his resentment for his family was simmering so close under the surface.

Levi speared him with a piercing glare. “And I suppose you call attempted murder in the middle of the Arendelle fjord _subtle_?” He demanded, rising to the challenge with a better parry than Hans had honestly expected. But then, Levi _was_ a soldier, even if words had never been his preferred sparring grounds.

Hans refused to let it show that the way things had spiralled out of control on him in Arendelle still rankled, and simply shrugged, casual and unrepentant. “Things got a little out of hand.” He conceded graciously, and it was a fight not to smirk when Levi went taut with fury, white-knuckled and vibrating with barely restrained violence.

He opened his mouth to yell, cast a look at the still-open carriage door, waiting for Rune to finish bootlicking, and managed to strangle his voice down to something that wouldn’t carry as he hissed, “What the hell do you think you’re playing at?!” A breath to regain some composure, and then he ploughed on before Hans could even begin to attempt to defend himself. “You’re lucky Queen Elsa didn’t decide we were _all_ in on it, and declare _war_! To think Mother trusted you with diplomatic relations with an entire country when you’re still such an insufferable _brat_!”

Hans wanted to snarl right back, because it was exactly that attitude that had always grated on him, all his life. But he reminded himself that he wanted his family on his side, and arguing with them wasn’t going to achieve that. So he forced his features into some semblance of contrition, and turned his gaze out of the window. Looking at his brothers right now would only piss him off more.

A heavy silence settled over them as Rune finally joined them, and after a round of tramping footsteps as the guards fell into formation around the carriage, they set off. Rune broke the silence with a sigh, and then Hans’ name. If he was going to ask if Hans was alright again, Hans was… well, he was going to be polite, because even if Rune was a soft-hearted fool, that would only make him the easiest to win over. He glanced over and pulled up a smile with no small amount of effort. He really needed to get a grip on his temper. This charade always seemed so easy in hindsight.

“What happened?” Rune asked finally, and Hans let out a sigh of relief, although he pitched it to sound more like exhaustion.

“Where do I _start_?” He groused, and the emotion wasn’t entirely false. “Apparently the Queen of Arendelle is some sort of sorceress with _ice magic_ , and she froze over her own kingdom in a fit of pique because I was trying to arrange a marriage with her sister.” There, that painted him in a fairly good light, and it was all technically accurate, to boot.

“She did mention in her letter that you seduced the Princess.” Erik remarked, looking amused and a touch disbelieving. “In the course of one ball, too. I didn’t think you had it in you. Lars is so proud.” He mocked. Levi shot him a chiding glare, which only earned an unrepentant ‘what?’ expression from Erik, while Hans just rolled his eyes. As if it had been _hard_ to seduce Anna. A few kind words and charming smiles, and she’d been eating out of his hand.

“Did you like her?” Rune asked, cautiously curious.

Hans blinked, thoroughly taken aback. It took him a moment to catch up and formulate an answer, because he couldn’t tell him the truth, which was that Anna was a loud, naive, clumsy, desperate idiot. And repeating the lie that he had fallen in love with her wouldn’t hold up under close scrutiny, so he settled on an acceptable middle path. “I thought we could have been good friends, as least.” He mused, but apparently, he had miscalculated. Levi was nodding as if he understood, but Rune was only frowning harder, looking more cautious and less curious. “And that’s all that’s really necessary for a political marriage, after all.” Hans went on, testing Rune’s reactions. He wasn’t looking any more convinced, though, so Hans decided a distraction was in order “I thought closer ties to Arendelle would be beneficial. Then the Queen froze everything and ran off, and the Princess dumped everything in _my_ lap to go after her, like it didn’t even _occur_ to her that her people weren’t _equipped_ to deal with a sudden winter-” He cut himself off like he was too frustrated to go on, and eyed Rune from under the cover of lifting a hand to his brow like he was giving himself a headache.

“She just… left it with you? With a foreign dignitary?” Levi demanded, incredulous.

“She publicly announced that she was leaving me in charge of Arendelle while she went gallivanting off into the mountains after her sister.” Hans confirmed dryly.

Levi looked down at his lap, scowling, and his next question was said in a tightly controlled and even tone of voice. “And trying to kill her?”

Hans scowled before he could stop himself, hating to be reminded of how everything had gone to hell so damned quickly. But he played it off. “She froze the entire kingdom and she was refusing to fix it! She attacked her own _sister_!” He could see the moment Levi accepted his side of the argument, and managed not to smirk in triumph.

Of course, it couldn’t be that easy with everyone. “The sister you claimed to have married in her last moments?” Erik challenged, amused and sceptical in equal measure.

“I didn’t think anyone would listen to me if I didn’t have _actual_ authority. The Princess was dying and delirious. I thought if we executed the Queen quickly, it might save her _and_ the kingdom.” Hans defended himself, giving Erik as earnest a look as he could manage. Erik shrugged like he didn’t care, and Hans fought down an eye-roll.

Silence filled the carriage for the rest of the journey. Hans propped his elbow on the windowsill, propped his cheek on his fist, and stared out at the streets passing by without letting any of his thoughts show on his face. He’d only been back in the Southern Isles for less than half an hour, and already he wished he was almost anywhere else. He tried not to dwell on it though, instead occupying himself with toying with plots and plans to get out from under his family’s thumb until they reached the castle. Levi and Erik wasted no time in exiting the carriage, but when Hans moved to follow, Rune reached out and caught his arm. It wasn’t a tight grip, Hans could have broken it if he’d tried, but instead he forced himself to pause and give Rune a questioning look.

“Are you really alright, Hans?” Rune asked, and Hans had to work very hard to keep any of his exasperation or contempt off his face. “You seem… weird.” Rune added, reluctant and uncertain, but it still gave Hans pause. If Rune was already seeing through the charade, then he was doing a lot worse than he thought. After all, Rune had always been the easiest to dupe, before.

Hans reached over to put his own hand on his brother’s arm and give it a reassuring pat. “I’m really fine, Rune.” He assured him patiently. “You don’t need to fuss.” Rune nodded. He still looked concerned, but he didn’t argue any further, so Hans climbed out of the carriage, and braced himself.

A moment later, the rest of the royal family was spilling down the steps and descending on Hans like a mob. Oren immediately began lecturing, and Lars laughed and clapped Hans on the back so hard he stumbled, and Nils latched onto Hans’ shoulders and asked questions with all the speed of a hummingbird. Karl made snide jokes, and Finn added his own sarcastic commentary, and Leif elbowed everyone out of the way to put Hans in a headlock and scruff his hair into a mess.

Hans endured it all with as much dignity as he could muster, even if he couldn’t quite manage anything resembling a smile. The chaotic melee carried him all the way inside and through the castle to the throne room, where his mother descended upon him with her usual cold grace. “Hans.” She greeted, easily slipping into the middle of the chaos without ever actually getting touched by it. She put one hand on his shoulder, gripping firmly, and studied his face intently. “What _happened_?” She demanded.

So Hans explained again, a little more coherently this time, what had happened in Arendelle, with just enough embellishment to make it sound like he’d been entirely wronged. “I- Maybe I over-reacted.” He hedged, with an entirely false air of reluctant regret. “But it was my responsibility, and that was the only way I could see to fix everything.”

It worked like a charm. His mother had never liked politics and diplomacy, even though she’d learned to be good at them, and so she immediately leapt to the defence of his, admittedly rather rash, actions. “You were doing the best you could.” She assured him, frowning at nothing. “How _dare_ they leave their country in your care, and then _blame you_ when you tried to protect it!”

Hans’ father stepped up beside her, putting a gently restraining hand on her arm. “It’s not worth a war, my love.” He chided.

“True.” His wife agreed, but she sounded annoyed about it. “Well, we’ll let it go for now, but if Arendelle expects us to be _generous_ with our trade after this, they’re going to be in for a very nasty surprise.” She decided. “And where do you boys think you’re going?!” She called over the heads of the crowd, to where a handful of Hans’ brothers were attempting to escape the reunion to go back to their own hobbies and pursuits.

“I was in the middle of a book on-”

“Somewhere quiet?”

“But my garden-”

The Queen’s gimlet stare was enough to shut them all up, and Hans was feeling eminently smug in that moment. “The kitchens are already preparing a family dinner to welcome Hans home. Not a banquet, I’m afraid, Hans. We can’t really be seen to be too celebratory after this mess, even if it was entirely of their own making.” She explained irritably.

“It’s fine, Mother.” Hans assured her. “It’ll be nice not to have to face the nobility right away after I embarrassed myself-”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” His mother interrupted sharply, somehow managing to get the entire hoard of her children to head towards the dining room with nothing more than a subtle gesture or two. She gave Hans a concerned look, and reached out to brush a lock of hair off his forehead. “You must be quite drained, if you’re turning down a party.” Hans flinched, and looked away before she could see the irritation that flashed across his face. He’d forgotten that little part of his usual act, and it grated that he was constantly slipping up like this. “Dinner, and then rest.” His mother ordered, and that grated too. He was not a child anymore, to be ordered to bed because he was cranky, but he didn’t argue, just smiled and nodded and let his mother shepherd him after his brothers.

Dinner was the normal barely-restrained chaos. Their father insisted on manners, but not even the Prince-Consort could keep the exuberance of thirteen brothers completely contained. And there was extra noise because of Hans’ return and the dramatic story he’d brought with him. Everyone had something to say about it, opinions sparking arguments that others would shout their questions over. Hans answered every one he managed to hear, but it wore on him like he could never remember this facade wearing on him before, and he was desperately relieved when dinner was over and he could escape.

He had _just_ managed to shake off Nils and his never ending stream of questions and was breathing in the relief of solitude when he heard voices from around a corner up ahead. He paused, not willing to interrupt anyone and risk catching their attention right when he’d finally managed to get some space to himself at last. And then he recognised Rune’s voice, and settled in to eavesdrop shamelessly.

“But something’s _wrong_!” Rune was insisting, and something like foreboding trickled down Hans’ spine. This was going to be about him, he just knew it.

“Experiences change people, Rune.” Another voice replied, and Hans didn’t have any trouble in placing it at Axel’s. It was no surprise that Rune would go to him, the two of them had always been close, despite the fact that it wouldn’t seem like Rune’s over-emotional nature and Axel’s rigidly logical approach to life would be a happy combination.

“Yes,” Rune agreed, in the sort of impatiently patient tone that suggested he felt Axel was being inexplicably slow. “So what the hell happened in Arendelle that turned Hans so… so _cold_? Hans isn’t _like that_. He _hates_ being mean to people, but there were all those little remarks he kept making. And in the carriage, he and Levi actually _agreed_ on diplomacy. They _never_ agree on diplomacy.” He went on, and Hans tipped his head back to glare at the ceiling. Why was he so off his game? Yes, okay, he’d failed, and that was frustrating and embarrassing and infuriating, but he’d fooled these people for seventeen years! Why was it all falling apart _now_?!

“It’s true that Hans has rarely ever taken the drastic route when appeasement would serve, but from the way he told it, it was a very difficult situation that left little time for rational debate. It’s not even improbable that the experience would make him more practical.” Axel countered, more like a challenge than an objection to Rune’s point.

Rune made a frustrated sound all the same. “Hans has always been practical.” He retorted. “More practical than the rest of you give him credit for.” That was surprising, but Hans supposed that, given that Rune was the brother he’d spent the most time with growing up, he was bound to have picked up _something_ more about Hans than the others, even if he was irritatingly oblivious most of the time. But why did he have to pick now to be so damned insightful? “This isn’t _practical_. There’s a difference between practical and cruel, and okay, Hans is skirting that line, but this isn’t just him being a little more grown-up or something, Axel.” Rune’s tone turned pleading. “Something’s _wrong_. Something’s really, really wrong with Hans, and I can’t figure out what.”

Axel was silent for a long moment, and Hans’ creeping sense of dread was back. “It would make sense to test your hypothesis.” He conceded, because _of course_. “But how do you propose we do that?”

“I want to go to Arendelle.” Rune stated. Hans nearly choked, and barely managed to remain silent in the face of that ridiculous idea. “Whatever happened happened there. I want to talk to Queen Elsa and Princess Anna myself, and I want to see how they interact with Hans, too.” Hans couldn’t begin to enumerate all the reasons that was a bad idea, but thankfully, he didn’t have to. Axel sounded just as horrified as he felt when he replied.

“I’m sorry, you want to take Hans _back to Arendelle_?!”


	2. Chapter 1

Elsa had been acting Queen Regent for three years before her coronation, so she’d thought that being Queen wouldn’t be that much different. She was wrong. Apparently, being Queen Regent meant she was actually very limited in what she could do; she _had_ to remain within the bounds of the laws and decrees her predecessors had made. Now? Now the people who had been contentedly running the kingdom for three years were coming to her with questions and complaints and petitions and inquiries and pleas and bribes and demands.

And the paperwork. Elsa’s hand was getting cramp from all the documents she was having to write and sign and annotate. Proclamations and letters and treaties piled up on her desk, and she spared a moment to irritably wish Anna was there for her to dump some of the work on. Then she shook the mean feeling off. Anna had spent years and years cooped up in this castle because Elsa couldn’t get her shit together, so Elsa wouldn’t begrudge her sister her decision to travel now that she finally could.

Still, Elsa mused as she signed the latest letter with a flourish and then pausing to rub at her aching wrist, perhaps she ought to consider hiring a scribe. Then she could dictate, and _they_ could write it all up, and she wouldn’t have to see a doctor about her aching joints. Mournfully, she stared at the pile of petitions from various nobles, businesses, and various other of her subjects waiting for her attention. She wanted to be a good Queen, she wanted to prove that she could do right by Arendelle, given the disastrous way her reign had started, but it was _hard work_ , and sometimes she really, really missed her ice palace at the top of North Mountain.

A knock on the door interrupted her internal moaning. “Your Majesty?” Her steward called through the wood.

“Henrik.” Elsa sighed with some relief. “Come in. What is it?” The large man opened the door, and Elsa’s smile immediately dropped away as she registered the deep concerned frown etching lines into his brow. “What’s wrong?” She demanded, rising to her feet with one hand braced on her desk, the other curling into a loose fist.

“There is a ship from the Southern Isles coming into dock, Your Majesty.” Henrik announced. “It’s flying the royal crest alongside the country’s flag.”

“They sent an ambassador?” Elsa asked, moving to search the papers on her desk to see if she missed a missive from the Southern Isles besides the perfunctory official apology she’d received from them a week ago. It had been brief but cordial, and she’d thought the matter dealt with. But to suddenly have one of their diplomats arriving with no notice suggested she’d been wrong. Suddenly that letter seemed far less sincere than she’d thought at the time.

“It appears so, Your Majesty.” Henrik confirmed.

Elsa took a breath, a single second to steel herself, and then she pulled her shoulders back and lifted her chin. “Send an escort down to the docks, but not too many. I want it to look courteous, not threatening, but I don’t want them wandering off while they’re here.” She announced, and Henrik smiled a little as he bowed, even though the worry lines didn’t full leave. “I’ll receive them in the throne room.” She rounded the desk and followed Henrik out into the hall, but then paused. “Oh, and Henrik? Get someone to tell Kristoff as well. If this is about Hans, his perspective may be needed, since Anna isn’t here.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Henrik said with another bow, and then they parted ways; Henrik off to organise the escort and the messengers, Elsa heading for the throne room.

Once there, she dropped onto the throne and allowed herself to slump for the time being. She had really, really wanted this to be over with. If the Southern Isles decided to stand behind Hans’ actions instead of condemning them, it could very easily lead to war. Elsa didn’t want that, of course, but neither could she stomach the idea of letting a man like that get away with toying with her sister’s life and heart. But was it worth sacrificing her people’s lives in war? Surely not. That’s why she’d sent Hans back home instead of locking him up in Arendelle; a gesture of goodwill, to show that she wasn’t going to demand recompense if the Southern Isles would just keep to their god damned selves for a while.

One of the servants that had come to attend the audience cleared her throat. “Your Majesty?” She called, and when Elsa looked up, she nodded towards the arm of the throne. It was covered in a light patina of frost where Elsa’s hand had been resting.

“Oh, thank you.” Elsa murmured, closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths. Instead of dwelling on the impending audience, she thought back to the last time she’d seen Anna, when she was leaving for Corona. Anna had attempted to break Elsa’s spine with her bear hug on the docks, and when she’d pulled back, she’d looked so torn, excited to be off to visit their Aunt, but agonised at leaving Elsa behind. Elsa had told her to have fun, and Anna had told Elsa she’d miss her about a dozen times, and that she loved her a dozen more, and she and their cousin had stood at the stern of the ship and waved and waved until they were out of sight.

It was a good memory, if a little bittersweet, and when Elsa opened her eyes again, the frost was gone. No matter what happened now, Anna loved her, and the people were no longer afraid. Elsa would do her best, and that would be good enough. One of the young couriers darted into the room from the servants’ corridor, whispered a hurried “they’ve reached the palace” to Elsa, and was halfway back out again before he remembered his manners, and turned to sketch a clumsy bow. “Your Majesty!” He added in a hushed yelp, before scampering away.

It was enough to put a smile on Elsa’s face as she sat up properly and straightened her skirt. It was a little more conservative than the dress she’d made for herself with her powers, much more like the dress she’d worn at her coronation, if in lighter, brighter shades of blue and white now. It was also less like a cocoon of fabric, with short sleeves and as much of a swooping neckline as Elsa’s tailor thought she could get away with.

The doors were opened by the pair of pages on duty, and a pair of Arendelle guards stepped across the threshold. They stepped to either side of the doors, turning to face each other with a thump of their spears against the floor to punctuate the motion, leaving the path clear for the trio of red-headed men they were escorting. Elsa’s cordial expression fell away as her eyes widened and fury flashed through her in a bright, cold flash.

The man in the lead looked to be older than herself by at least a decade, with dark red hair and a close cropped-beard several shades lighter, while the two following him were around her own age, similar enough to look at that they were _obviously_ related, and one of them was entirely too familiar. When her eyes met Hans’, he smirked, one eyebrow twitching in challenge or mockery, she couldn’t tell, but either way, the expression only made her anger solidify in her chest.

Rising to her feet, Elsa switched her glare to the man in the lead, and tried desperately to keep hold of her temper. “What is the meaning of this?” She demanded, cold but level. “Why have you brought _that man_ back to Arendelle after everything he’s done?”

The man in the lead bowed deeply, and the unfamiliar man behind him did the same. When Hans refused to bow, his brother – Elsa presumed these men were two of his brothers – elbowed him hard enough in the ribs that she heard Hans’ grunt of pain as he bowed from where she was at the other end of the room. “I am Prince Axel of the Southern Isles, Your Majesty, and this is my brother, Prince Rune. Our purpose in visiting you is to understand better what, exactly, it was that happened, and what should be done about it. As Hans was involved, we thought he ought to be here.”

Elsa really had no idea what to say to that. She pursed her lips in annoyance and tried to formulate a response that wouldn’t sound too rude. “I had hoped the issue had been settled perfectly well already. Your brother made it home unharmed, and we received an apology for his behaviour. What else could you possibly want, Your Highness?”

Axel sighed, and glanced over his shoulder at the other one, Rune. “Clarity, Your Majesty.” He said finally. “Your letter and Hans’ reports don’t match up, and we would like to uncover the truth.”

“Of course they don’t.” Elsa mused, glaring at Hans. “I imagine he spun you all a grand tale of how he was just trying to help. He’s not the sort to admit that he was attempting a coup if he could get away with denying it.”

“Is it a coup if your sister left me in charge?” Hans replied, smiling like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth. “I was simply doing the duty I was charged with to the best of my ability.”

“You _left her to die_.” Elsa snarled, enraged. “How is the murder of Arendelle’s Princess in any way ‘doing your duty’?!”

Hans held up his hands, as if in surrender. “ _I_ didn’t try to kill her, Your Majesty. It was you who froze her heart. Just because I wasn’t capable of creating a cure doesn’t make it my fault she was dying. That one’s on you.”

Elsa sucked in a sharp breath, the barb in those words striking true. The memory of Anna, frozen to solid ice on the fjord, her last act a desperate defence of Elsa even after she had struck the blow that ended up killing her, was all too vivid in her mind. She staggered back a step before she could stop herself, and twisted her hands into fists over the ache in her heart as she fought for composure. The look on Hans’ face wasn’t helping. He was smirking again, eyebrow quirked in smug victory, and Elsa seriously considered emulating Anna and just punching him square in the nose.

“See?!” Rune hissed, low enough that Elsa suspected she wasn’t meant to hear. “That, right there! That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to tell you about!”

Whatever response Axel might have had, or any questions Elsa might have wanted to ask about that strange exclamation, was halted by a commotion from the doorway. Looking over Hans’ shoulder, Elsa saw Kristoff standing there, a little out of breath as he hung off the door-jamb and glowered at Hans. “What the hell is _he_ doing _here_?!” He demanded, straightening and squaring his shoulders as he strode forwards in a distinctly threatening manner.

“We are here for answers, and if you lay one hand on my brother, you will not be getting it back.” Axel snapped, hand on his sword in a very obvious threat. Elsa noticed that although he had half turned to face Kristoff, he was still keeping Elsa in sight. A smart man, then.

This had turned into a complete mess, and as much as Elsa would dearly love to let Kristoff beat Hans to a pulp, she knew she couldn’t let her personal feelings dictate her actions like that. She needed to think of Arendelle, and a brawl in the throne room with foreign dignitaries could only lead to war. “Kristoff, that’s enough!” She snapped.

Kristoff stalled and hesitated, looking torn. “But he-” He began, gesturing at Hans and sending Elsa a pleading look. He was awfully good at those, really.

“I know.” Elsa agreed, lifting a hand to pinch at the bridge of her nose. “I _know_ , but as satisfying as it would be, I don’t think it’s going to solve anything. Prince Axel said they were here for answers, and answers they can have.” She announced, then met Axel’s eyes squarely. With her coldest, sharpest polite smile, Elsa seated herself back on the throne, and waved a hand in an inviting gesture. “Ask your questions, Your Highness.”

Axel considered her for a long moment before he dropped his hand away from his sword. Kristoff huffed a sigh, and walked past the trio of Princes to stand like a guard just off to the side of the dais where the throne was positioned. Then he crossed his arms over his chest and glowered. Axel eyed him as well, before finally speaking. “Hans made mention of you freezing your sister’s heart. Is that accurate?”

“Hey, now-!” Kristoff began, firing up at once.

Elsa held up a hand, and he subsided petulantly. “His implication that I did it deliberately is false, but yes. As I said in my letter to the King and Queen, I have had some difficulties in controlling the ice-based magic I was born with, which have thankfully been resolved. But yes, during the drama around my coronation, I lost control of my powers, and they froze my sister’s heart.”

“What, exactly, does that mean?” Axel inquired, frowning deeply. “What are the symptoms?”

“Kristoff would know better than I.” Elsa informed him, and they both looked to Kristoff. His frown became less aggressive and more unhappy, and his eyes drifted out of focus as he thought back.

“Well, we first noticed that her hair was turning white. Then she started feeling a chill, no matter how warmly she was wrapped up. Grandpabbi said that if she couldn’t fix it, she would freeze to solid ice, and that only an act of true love could thaw a frozen heart.” He explained, and then his gaze sharpened as he turned his glare on Hans. “So I brought her back to the man who _claimed_ to love her, and he locked her up in a freezing room to die while he executed her sister for ‘treason’ and took the throne for himself.” He accused, sketching quotes in the air with his fingers.

“Just because there was nothing I could do for her meant I was supposed to sit back and leave Arendelle to suffer?” Hans demanded with an air of wounded dignity.

Kristoff opened his mouth, no doubt to snarl something offensive, and Elsa considered jumping in to stop him. Before she could decide if she actually wanted to, Axel interrupted the brewing argument by ignoring it completely. “And that is the only manner in which it might manifest?” He pressed, looking at Elsa and ignoring the disgruntled look his brother shot at the back of his head.

“What exactly are you trying to say, Prince Axel?” Elsa demanded.

“Only this: That while Hans has always had a gift for bending the truth to make it more palatable, and talking others around to his point of view, he has never actually been malicious or callous in his use of such skills until this incident. He left us a kind-hearted man, and returned cruel and, not to put too fine a point on it; cold-hearted. Enough that Prince Rune insisted on returning here to discover what could have happened to him during his stay here. And then you tell us that you have the power to freeze hearts? I’m disinclined to believe that a coincidence.”

Elsa gaped at him, stunned speechless by the accusation. “And you’re just going to ignore the fact that Hans’ supposed ‘symptoms’ are nothing at all like what happened to Anna?” Kristoff interjected irritably. “Maybe he’s always been a cold-hearted bastard, and he just managed to fool you like he fooled everyone else.”

“Or perhaps there has been some magic done upon him.” Axel retorted, clipped and hard.

Elsa finally managed to find her voice. “What possible reason could I have for doing something like that?” She asked incredulously.

“You said yourself that you lost control of your powers.” Axel retorted evenly.

“This is ridiculous!” Elsa huffed. “Kristoff is right. If I _had_ frozen Hans’ heart, believe me, you would know. His flesh would be turning to ice, his hair turning white. Anna was still entirely herself the whole time; no more cruel or unkind than she ever was. This is _not_ of my doing.”

“Can you be certain?” Axel challenged. When Elsa opened her mouth in outrage, he raised a hand in a steadying gesture, and pressed on. “I am open to the possibility that there was some more subtle change in Hans’ personality. Perhaps Levi was right, and he has simply grown up and become more jaded. Perhaps Kristoff there is right, and he has managed to fool all of us for seventeen years. Perhaps there is some other influence on him driving him to act unusually. I am not saying the _only_ answer is magic, I am just requesting clarification. Are you absolutely, entirely certain that your magic could not possibly affect someone in such a way, or is it simply that it’s unlike what you have been able to do to date?”

Elsa subsided with a sigh of mixed frustration and capitulation. “I’ve never understood my powers.” She admitted reluctantly. “Until recently, I did everything I could to pretend I didn’t have them, and it’s not as though there was anyone to tell me about them.”

“What about Kristoff’s grandfather?” Rune interjected curiously. Elsa had almost forgotten he was there, he’d been so quiet throughout the conversation. He met her startled look with wide, earnest eyes. “From what he said, it sounds like he knew more about your powers than anyone else.”

Elsa inclined her head. “It’s true. Trolls are creatures of magic, so their understanding is probably better than most humans, but they’re also reclusive and dangerous.”

“They’re not dangerous.” Kristoff protested, but his tone was more sheepish than defiant. “Sometimes they don’t exactly know when to stop, but they’re good people.”

Huffing a soft laugh, Elsa shook her head. She didn’t know where Anna had found him, but she was glad her sister had managed to locate the one man in Arendelle just as weird and kind-hearted as she was. “Popular, and apparently incorrect, opinion is that they’re reclusive and dangerous.” She corrected herself wryly.

“Trolls.” Axel repeated. His voice carried absolutely no inflection, which somehow only managed to enhance the air of complete and utter disbelief he was projecting.

Elsa’s moment of good humour faded, and she raised an eyebrow at the man, unimpressed by his disbelief. “Yes. Trolls.”

“That’s amazing.” Rune breathed, leaning forwards a little and staring at Kristoff in blatant fascination. “You’re a troll, then? Forgive me for saying, but you don’t look very different from a human. Is that normal? Oh! Is it magic?”

“Oh, no, I’m not- I mean, they raised me, but _I’m_ not a troll.” Kristoff exclaimed with an awkward laugh. “They took me in when I was a kid, me and Sven. Grandpabbi isn’t my, you know, _actual_ grandfather, but he’s… well, he’s still family.”

“Perhaps, then, you could introduce us.” Axel suggested mildly.

Kristoff’s sheepish expression dropped into a frown at once. “Wait, what?”

“So that we might ask this expert in magic about what could possibly have happened to our brother.” Axel explained patiently.

“Axel, you can’t be serious.” Hans huffed, rolling his eyes.

“I am quite serious.” Axel retorted.

“You honestly think someone _magicked_ me into… what, exactly?” Hans scoffed. “Are you saying you believe their story that it was me staging a coup when they practically _threw_ their country at me?”

“I cannot comment on what happened, as I wasn’t present.” Axel said, very diplomatically, Elsa thought. “From my own observations I can say that you are, quite certainly, different from the person you were when you left for Arendelle. I had been willing to put it down to simply a harrowing experience affecting you, but Rune’s suspicions were strong enough that I decided an investigation was in order. Magic is a viable possibility, and therefore should be pursued until we have conclusive evidence one way or another. It’s only logical.”

“It’s absurd.” Hans huffed.

“And it’s not happening.” Kristoff added, crossing his arms again. “My family prefer to be left alone by humans, since most of them are rude, interfering liars, and I don’t owe you anything. I _especially_ don’t owe _him_ anything.” He added, lifting one hand to jab a finger at Hans.

Axel turned to Elsa, who raised her eyebrow without a word. “Your Majesty?” He questioned.

“It is not a Queen’s place to interfere with the personal choices of her subjects.” Elsa pronounced archly. If he was expecting her to side with him and order Kristoff to break the trust of his own family, he was going to be waiting a long damned time.

Axel’s expression went cold in a way that was eerily reminiscent of Hans when he was at his most vindictive, and Elsa felt a chill run down her spine. “Your Majesty would refuse to allow us to meet with the magical expert who would be able to tell us whether or not magic was used upon our brother?” He asked coolly, but didn’t wait for an answer. “If that were so, we might be forced to wonder what you might possibly have to hide.”

Elsa nearly choked on her shock and outrage. She knew that neither one of them _wanted_ a war, but apparently she wasn’t going to be afforded the same courtesy as she had offered the Southern Isles. _She_ had been willing to lay the blame at Hans’ feet, and Hans’ alone, after he toyed with her sister, but here Axel was, threatening war over the mere _possibility_ that Elsa had done something nefarious to Hans. She ought to call his bluff, because he couldn’t seriously intend to risk his subjects’ lives over a threat to Hans’ peace of mind or some such.

“What the- Are you- _Fine_ !” Kristoff huffed, throwing his hands in the air. “ _Fine_ , if you want to meet them that badly, then _fine_. Just don’t blame me when you get squashed or turned into mushrooms! He’s not even worth this much fuss, but whatever, he’s _your_ brother, I guess. Humans are all insane!”

“Kristoff, are you sure?” Elsa inquired, ignoring the black look Rune sent her. “You don’t have to do this, no matter what they might _threaten_.” She stressed the word, sending Axel a cold look of her own.

“No, I’m not sure.” Kristoff replied irritably. “But if they want to meet Grandpabbi _that_ badly, I don’t care enough to stop them. Besides, Hans has already done enough damage, let’s not add a war to his tally as well.” He scathed.

Both were fairly good points, so Elsa relented. It probably wasn’t sensible to let her own offence risk a war, either, if she was being honest. “Very well. Kristoff, do you require anything for the journey?” She asked. Kristoff shook his head without needing to think about it.

“If Your Majesty would allow it, Prince Rune will remain here.” Axel spoke up.

“I’ll _what_?!” Rune yelped indignantly.

Elsa met Axel’s gaze with a small frown, and the Prince returned the stare steadily. “I would hate to burden our guide with too large a party, and Prince Rune has always been interested in learning about other cultures.”

“Which is exactly why I want to go with you and meet trolls!” Rune interjected, for all the world like a child whining about missing out on a treat. It was almost endearing.

It was also, Elsa recognised, a gesture of good will from Axel. He was essentially allowing Elsa the option of holding Rune hostage, as well as ensuring that Kristoff wasn’t entirely outnumbered while escorting Hans and Axel to the trolls. Perhaps his motive was also to keep Rune safe in case the trolls did prove dangerous, so that he could report what had happened to their parents, but Elsa didn’t actually have any problem with that.

“He is welcome as my guest for as long as necessary.” Elsa assured Axel, who bowed politely. “Henrik, would you have a suite set up for his use?” She asked, and her steward also bowed and summoned a maid to do just that. Then she rose to her feet and stepped down off the dais to approach Kristoff. “Be careful, Kristoff.” She entreated, gripping his arm lightly.

“I will.” Kristoff assured her with a lopsided smile. “I’ll have Sven with me, we’ll be fine.”

Elsa nodded. “See you in a few days, then.”

“Yeah.” Kristoff nodded. Then nodded again, and marched off towards Axel and Hans, who were bickering fiercely in low voices, but stopped the moment Kristoff was in hearing range and allowed him to usher them both out of the throne room.

Elsa took a breath to steady herself, and then offered Rune a cool smile as she approached him. “Would you like some refreshments while your rooms are being prepared?” She asked him politely.

Rune sighed, watching after his brothers with longing. Elsa couldn’t help but note that he looked remarkably similar to Hans, although his hair was a darker red, almost auburn, and long enough to be pulled back into a short tail at the nape of his neck. Then he turned to Elsa with a rueful smile. “That sounds excellent, Your Majesty. And… perhaps you could tell me more about the trolls?” He asked hopefully.

“I hardly know much, but I’ll tell you about the one time I met them, and I can refer you to some of the books in our library.” Elsa offered. Rune visibly brightened at that, and Elsa was glad, at least, that it was the least offensive of the three brothers that had been left behind. He might even turn out to be decent company. If she was very lucky.


	3. Chapter 2

Kristoff couldn’t help the small sigh of satisfaction that escaped him every time he laid eyes on his sled. It really was a beautiful piece of craftsmanship, but the fact that it had been a gift from Anna was the thing that really made him love it as much as he did. The moment soured when he remembered he was going to have _Prince fucking Hans_ in it. He wondered, with a small wince, what Anna would think of all this if she were here.

Damn, but he missed her. They’d only had a couple of weeks together after all the drama finally settled down, before her cousin offered a visit. Anna had been so excited, underneath her hesitancy to leave when both her relationship with Elsa _and_ her relationship with Kristoff were still in such fragile states, that Kristoff hadn’t hesitated to encourage her to go. She deserved a chance to really spread her wings, and Kristoff refused to be the reason she held herself back from something she wanted.

He wondered if she’d be mad that he was, essentially, helping Hans and his brother. Under duress, perhaps, but he was still doing it. Then again, Anna cared deeply for Arendelle, and she might agree that it was worth going along with them to avoid war. Imagining trying to explain it to her made him chuckle as he readied the sleigh and hitched it up to Sven’s halter, because he could just picture the way she’d squint at him and tilt her head, as if looking at him from a different angle would make him make more sense. Her nose would wrinkle in confusion, and she’d ask “Wait, wait. You did _what now_?”

After that, his imaginary scenario fell apart. Would she be annoyed? Understanding? He didn’t quite know her well enough to tell, yet. But he was looking forward to finding out, even if the notion was a little nerve-wracking, too. After all, he _did_ know her well enough to know that she had one hell of a temper when she was really pushed.

With a sigh, he dragged himself back to the present, and hopped up to sit on the driver’s bench. “Axel, you can sit up here if you want, or you can sit in the back with Hans. Your choice.” He instructed. The Prince pursed his lips in annoyance, presumably at Kristoff’s lack of respect in addressing him, but nodded and joined Kristoff on the bench.

Hans looked at the sled with raised eyebrows. “Hans.” Axel sighed, when the man made no move to get in. “Humour me; get in the damned sled.”

Hans’ lip curled for just a moment, before he forcibly smoothed his expression back into politely baffled neutrality. But Kristoff saw it, and from the stiffening of Axel’s shoulders, so did he. With a reluctant sigh, Hans caught hold of the back of the sled with one gloved hand, tucked the toe of one boot into the decorative edging, and hauled himself up and over with an annoying level of grace. “Since you asked so nicely, brother.” He said, just bland enough that Kristoff couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not.

“How long is the journey?” Axel asked as Kristoff clicked his tongue and Sven began to haul the sled out of the stables.

“Half a day, probably.” Kristoff replied evenly. “We might be able to make it in a few hours if we go fast and don’t stop to eat, but I figured you’d probably rather get there late than miss dinner, so I brought food anyway.”

“Thank you.” Axel said graciously, which Kristoff thought was pretty rich, since he’d basically blackmailed Kristoff into doing this in the first place. Setting his jaw, he decided to just ignore the pair of them, and try to pretend that he was just heading out for a visit. A few of the people who lived in the capital city waved to him, and he waved back, not quite managing a smile for them. He’d become a common sight in the last couple of weeks, and given that Anna had been travelling with him more often than not as he carted ice down from the mountains to the palace, the people had quickly warmed to him. Of course, Axel just had to comment. “You are well loved here.”

“Only because of Anna.” Kristoff replied shortly.

“She is popular with the commonfolk, then?” Axel pressed.

Kristoff shot him a sideways stink-eye. “Sure she is. She’s a decent person. Why wouldn’t she be?” He demanded pointedly. Axel’s eyebrow twitched, and Kristoff tried not to feel _too_ much petty satisfaction. But, well, he didn’t try very hard.

“The commonfolk can be fickle, and I was under the impression that the Queen and Princess had been isolated from their people for the last three years. Popular opinion could have turned against them for their reclusiveness.” Axel pointed out.

Kristoff shrugged. “Well, it didn’t.” He replied shortly.

“If you say so.” Hans mused, just loud enough to be heard from the back.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kristoff snapped, in no humour to deal with him.

Hans made a scoffing sound. “Just that it was remarkable, how grateful the people seemed to be, to have someone in charge who actually gave a damn about them and their safety and comfort.”

“No one might have _seen_ the Princesses the last three years, but they were still taken care of.” Kristoff snarled back, infuriated. Did Hans think that some veneer of caring from him would excuse all the horrible things he’d done? “Being a smooth-talking con-man doesn’t make you some paragon of virtue, you know. And just because a few citizens fell for your ‘I’m such a hero’ routine doesn’t mean you were actually any good for Arendelle at all.”

“And how would you know?” Hans retorted. Kristoff glanced over his shoulder with a glare, and then wished he hadn’t, because the sight of that condescending smirk was threatening to send him into a rage. “Forgive me for saying, but it’s entirely obvious that you’re not what anyone would call a _people person_. And unfortunately, knowing how to get along with people is rather essential for a Prince, never mind a King.”

“If ‘getting along with people’ means ‘lying right to their faces with a smile’, then I’m quite happy not to be a people person, thank you.” Kristoff sniped back pointedly.

“Then I hope you let Anna down gently.” Hans replied, in such a smarmy attempt at sincere that Kristoff didn’t think a tone-deaf fool would believe him. “After all, her poor heart has already suffered enough.”

“Because of _you_!” Kristoff shouted furiously, seriously fighting the temptation to let go of the reins in favour of wrapping his hands around Hans’ _throat_. It was a good thing they were at the outskirts of the city already, because it would probably have been a bad thing to make such a scene in the middle of a crowded street.

“Because of _Elsa_ , as we’ve already established. Do try to keep up.” Hans condescended.

“Just because you _claimed_ that was true doesn’t make it an established fact.” Kristoff sneered through gritted teeth, keeping his eyes on the path ahead. “Maybe Elsa was the trigger, but _you_ and your lies are the reason Anna wasted _hours_ looking for a cure in the _wrong damned place_.”

“Just because she loved me more than you is no reason to be bitter, Kristoff.” Hans mocked.

Kristoff saw red. Sven snorted in shock and confusion as the reins suddenly pulled taught, and then went slack as Kristoff lost against his temper and turned with the full intention of breaking the bastard’s nose again. Hans dodged his first grab by inches, and wound up sprawled across the bed of the sled with a comically surprised look on his face. Kristoff got one hand on the back of the driver’s seat, prepared to launch himself over it, when Axel grabbed hold of his forearm in a restraining grip.

“ _Enough!_ ” Axel barked, an air of command to his voice that did make Kristoff falter. Then he rounded on the man with a glower, a furious tirade on the tip of his tongue, only to find him with his eyes fixed on Hans instead, frowning darkly. “This is entirely beneath you, Hans, not to mention foolish in the extreme.” Then he turned to Kristoff, and though his expression was still thunderous, Kristoff didn’t feel like it was directed at him. “I apologise for my brother. I swear, he’s usually much politer than this.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Kristoff groused, huffing as he turned back to the front and reached for the reins again. They’d slowed to a complete stop, and Sven was looking over his shoulder, concern shining in his eyes. “It’s okay, Sven.” He assured, but Sven only whuffed sceptically. “Let’s just get this over with, yeah?” Kristoff prompted tiredly, and Sven grumbled but obligingly went back to pulling the sled onwards through the woods.

Dusk fell, and the stars winked into view behind the scattering of clouds. The path got more and more rocky as they went, but Sven was sure-footed and kept to the smoothest route he could in deference to the sled. They stopped to eat once they were well into the foothills, a brief meal that passed in taut, terse, uncomfortable silence before they travelled on again. Finally, they came to the right valley, and Sven slowed to a stop, nosing a friendly hello to the sentry on duty at the very edge of the troll-hop.

Kristoff jumped down, and patted Sven’s haunches as he passed. “Well, come on if you’re coming.” He called over his shoulder as he unhitched Sven from the sled, and set off into the valley proper. Sven bounded past him like an over-excited puppy, down the narrow path edged with small geysers to the central meeting place. It was, as per usual, full of trolls who had hastily resumed their rock-shape when they’d realised humans other than Kristoff were approaching. “Hey, everyone.” Kristoff called on a sigh.

No response.

“I know, I know, but it’s _important_.” Kristoff huffed. He glanced over his shoulder ruefully, and saw both Axel and Hans standing at the edge of the valley eyebrows raised with incredulity. Axel’s arms were folded across his chest, and the thin line of his mouth was severe and displeased, but Hans looked more like he was trying not to laugh. At Kristoff. Asshole. “Look, guys, we just need to talk to Grandpabbi about some magic things, and then I’ll take them away again. I promise.”

Finally – finally – the trolls relented, and a handful of them rolled forwards to cluster behind Kristoff before they retook their more humanoid shapes. Kristoff chuckled at the display they made, appearing more like nervous children frightened by and wary of strangers than any sort of ancient magical race. “Well.” Axel said finally. “That’s not something you see every day.”

“Who’s this?” His adopted mother, Petra, demanded, fists on her hips as she peered up at the two brothers standing at the edge of the troll-hop. “More friends, Kristoff?”

“No, no. Really, no.” Kristoff assured her dryly. “They have some questions about magic that Elsa couldn’t answer, so they wanted to talk to Grandpabbi.” Petra’s lips twisted into a disapproving moue, and she turned to glare up at Kristoff. He held up his hands. “They insisted!”

“I’m afraid we did.” Axel confirmed, stepping forwards. “It’s a rather important matter to us.”

“Well, then, what do you want to know?” Petra demanded.

Axel raised an eyebrow at Kristoff, and he sighed. “Where’s Grandpabbi?”

“Right here.”

Kristoff startled at the sound of the voice _right behind him_ , and closed his eyes in annoyance as he waited for his heart to climb down from his throat. As the moment of shock faded, amusement crept in. “Thanks for that.” He huffed, shaking his head in exasperation. “Grandpabbi, this is Prince Axel and… Prince Hans. Of the Southern Isles.” He introduced.

“Hans?”

“Prince Hans?”

“Not the fiancé?”

“Was it Hans?”

“It was.”

Hans actually took half a step backwards as every troll in the valley turned to stare intently at him. Then, as one, they all turned to stare at Kristoff. “Kristoff…!” Petra began warningly. “What’s going on? Is Anna in trouble again?”

“No.” Kristoff sighed.

To his relief, Axel stepped forwards again, dropping down to one knee so that he was more of a level with Grandpabbi, who shuffled out from behind Kristoff, a solemn expression on his craggy old face. “We fear some sorcery has been done upon my brother.” He explained, gesturing to Hans. “The Queen mentioned she had the power to freeze hearts, and we wondered if she might have done so, accidentally.” He added the last part pointedly, before Kristoff could do more than open his mouth to voice his complaint at the implication.

Grandpabbi grumbled for a moment, but then nodded. “Let me have a look at him.”

Axel beckoned Hans over, and warily, Hans stepped through the crowds of trolls to stand beside his brother. After another long moment of hesitation, he too knelt. Grandpabbi reached up, balancing with one hand on Hans’ knee, and pressed a hand to the man’s forehead. “What-?” Hans began, almost rearing back before Axel’s hand landed between his shoulder-blades. It was clearly meant to be a comforting, steadying gesture, but Hans shook it off irritably. It was enough of a distraction, however, that he didn’t get around to shaking Grandpabbi off until he was already finished and settling back down onto his heels, hands folded in front of him.

“There is none of Queen Elsa’s magic upon him, and she has certainly not frozen his heart.” Grandpabbi announced solemnly.

Kristoff nodded in satisfaction. “There, you see? I told you the symptoms were all wrong.”

“Since there’s nothing wrong with me, shall we go?” Hans added, bracing his hands on his knee to shove himself back to his feet.

Axel did not move. “Is there other magic upon him? If not Queen Elsa, are there others who might have done something to alter his behaviour?” He asked, green eyes intent.

“Oh, come on.” Kristoff exclaimed. “You got your answer. Just because it’s not the one you wanted-!”

Axel ignored him completely, not looking away from Grandpabbi. The old troll didn’t answer for several long moments, and a breathless sort of expectancy fell over the troll-hop as everyone waited to see what would happen. “There are, of course, other sorcerers in the world.” Grandpabbi said finally.

“In Arendelle?”

“None other than those you have already met, to the best of my knowledge.”

“So Elsa is the only one?”

“She is the only ice mage, yes.”

Kristoff frowned, looking down at Grandpabbi in surprise. Trolls were usually a painfully honest folk, it was something that had never helped Kristoff growing up, because all the human children had rather hated his bluntness, on the few occasions he’d interacted with them, and he’d learnt that from the trolls. He’d always been under the impression than lies were almost painful to them. But this… this sounded like the sort of evasion that could only come from trying to protect a lie.

Axel’s eyes narrowed sharply. “You are being evasive, sir, and I’m not sure I appreciate it. Tell me plainly, yes or no, is there any magic upon my brother, Prince Hans?”

Again, Grandpabbi was silent for a moment, before he sighed, and nodded. “There is. But it is subtle. Old magic, and not something I have seen in many, many years. Almost a lifetime. There isn’t much more I can tell you, I’m afraid. It is in his heart, yes, though what, exactly, it will do, I cannot say for sure. It is of an icy nature, but it is very different from all I have seen Queen Elsa do so far. Her magics have always been of the physical. Frozen water, and frozen bodies. This is subtler, and colder. Much colder.”

Kristoff _stared_. First he stared at Grandpabbi. Then he stared at _Hans_. He felt a little like someone had just yanked a rug out from under his feet. Grandpabbi had just confirmed that… well, he hadn’t confirmed all that much, really, but that there was _some_ form of magic on Hans, something cold in his heart that _wasn’t his_. Suddenly, all of Axel and Rune’s assertions that their brother was not a cruel man seemed terrifyingly possible.

Axel bowed his head, an expression of pain flashing over his features before he drew in a deep breath and packed that away. “Do you know how to remove or negate this magic?” He asked, in a tone that suggested he wasn’t daring to hope.

“No.” Grandpabbi admitted in a resentful little grumble. “I do not.”

“Do you know of anyone who might be able to help us?” Axel pleaded.

At that, Grandpabbi smiled, and reached out to lay a hand on Axel’s knee. “There are always those willing to aid others. There is always hope. And, I have found, that where wisdom and magic may fail, true love never falters.”

Hans rolled his eyes. Axel looked like he wanted to do the same, but in the end he only bowed his head. “Thank you for your help, sir.” He said wearily. Grandpabbi nodded, patted his knee again, and turned to shuffle away.

Kristoff’s brain finally recovered from the shock of hearing that Hans might not be villain he’d always thought of him ask, and he turned towards Grandpabbi’s retreating back, alarm bells ringing in the back of his mind. “Wait.” He called, and Grandpabbi paused. “ _I_ have some questions.”

The sigh Grandpabbi heaved was weary beyond measure, but he turned to Kristoff with a gentle smile that _almost_ managed to make Kristoff feel bad. It would have, if he hadn’t been suddenly _highly_ aware of all the questions he hadn’t _quite_ answered. “What is it, Kristoff?”

“Grandpabbi… Do you know who put that magic on Hans?” Kristoff asked, quiet and solemn.

Grandpabbi frowned at him. “There is no way to tell from the magic itself-”

“Do you know?” Kristoff interrupted.

“If I did, don’t you think I would have said something by now?”

Confusion stilled Kristoff’s tongue for long enough that Grandpabbi nodded once, short and irritated, and turned away again. There was only one conclusion Kristoff could come to, after that, but he couldn’t understand _why_. Hans had no connection to the trolls, none at all that Kristoff knew of, except…

Oh, gods above. This was his fault, wasn’t it? This was because of him.

“Girish.” Kristoff called, and he was almost shocked by the sound of his own voice. It was hard and hollow in a way he’d never heard from himself before. Grandpabbi froze in his tracks, and every troll in the troll-hop gasped. It wasn’t exactly the done thing, to share a troll’s name with outsiders, and the look of betrayal on Grandpabbi’s face would have stung, if it hadn’t so acutely matched the feeling clawing at the inside of Kristoff’s ribs. “As a son of your clan, I have a right to the truth: Are you responsible for the magic on Hans’ heart?”

In the dead silence that followed, Axel rose slowly to his feet, his expression a blank mask. Most of the trolls were staring at Kristoff, but one or two of the younger ones were looking in confusion to Girish. Finally, the old troll sighed. “I am.” He confirmed.

“Undo it.” Kristoff ordered. “Right now.”

Girish shook his head. “I cannot.”

“Why not?”

“I am responsible for placing the shard of ice in Hans’ heart, yes, but the magic is not mine.” Girish explained. “I have no skill with elemental magics. I am a sorcerer of the mind, of thoughts and memories, not ice, or the heart.”

“You-!” Kristoff choked on the incredulity, the disbelief, the betrayal. “ _Why_ would you _do that_?!” He demanded, flinging one arm out in an expansive gesture. “ _You_ were the one who taught me – who taught _all of us_ – not to mess with forces we don’t understand. ‘Don’t start a fire if you don’t know how to put it out’, isn’t that one of the first lessons you teach _every_ young troll?!”

“We just wanted to help you!” Petra interjected, stepping up to defend Girish. She put herself between him and Kristoff, hands up as if she were soothing a spooked horse, as if Kristoff was being unreasonable and irrational and needed to calm down.

“That’s right.” Hajara, her partner, interjected, scowling up at Kristoff.

Kristoff mouthed helplessly at them, so full of incomprehension that he didn’t even know where to start trying to clear everything up. “You did this- you _interfered with human politics_ just because- because _what_?! I didn’t even-” Incoherence gave way to outrage. “Just because you saw me standing next to a girl _one damn time_ doesn’t mean I’m automatically in love with her!”

“You brought her _home_!” Petra protested.

“ _For help_ , not because- I can want to help a girl without being in love with her! And- And _even if_ I was, you can’t just _bewitch_ the guy she’s in love with, that’s- I’d want Anna to be with me because she _loves me_ , not because the guy she _actually_ loves is under an enchantment! How could you _do that_ to her?!”

“She is not our concern.” Girish interjected.

The incomprehension was back. “But-” Kristoff stammered. “You _saved her_. You- When the King and Queen brought her to you, you-”

“King Kai commanded our obedience.” Girish interjected, and for the first time Kristoff could remember, he actually sounded angry.

“I thought you didn’t like getting involved in human politics.” Kristoff scathed.

“We do not.” Girish agreed. “Usually.”

Taking a deep breath, Kristoff tried to sort his thoughts out, but there were too many questions, too much confusion, for him to manage. Finally, he sat, legs crossed and hands braced on his knees, and glared at Girish. “Explain.” He ordered.

“This is not a tale for outsiders.” Girish denied.

Kristoff wanted to explode. Instead he just clenched his hands into fists, and breathed until the urge to take an icepick to Girish’s head subsided. “You made it their business when you _cursed_ one of them. They stay.” He insisted fiercely, and then added; “If you send them away, I’ll only tell them later.”

Girish sighed. “You are too young to remember the days of unity. You know us only as isolated clans, one small troll-hop among hundreds, scattered through the mountains, separate, alone. We were not always so.” He gestured as he spoke, and above his head, lights like an aurora bloomed into images. The mountains of Arendelle outlined themselves, with little star-like lights scattered amongst them. But then they shifted, the mountains spun away to leave a small galaxy converging on itself into one much brighter light.

“Once, long ago, we were a powerful people, united and blessed with great power and magics under the protection of our Queen in her stronghold, a palace of pure ice to be found east of the sun and west of the moon.” A new image formed, a silhouette of a troll in lilac light, only where the other trolls were all small and squat, she was as tall as a man, broad-shouldered and still stocky, despite her height. There was a spiked crown on her head, and above one hand was a swirl that Kristoff knew represented magic. “She was the heart of winter given life, as gentle as the first snowfall and as fierce as a blizzard at midwinter.”

“She had a mirror, made of ice and her own magic, that could show any strife in the world. It was how she protected us, warned us what lands would not welcome us. But one day, it broke. Shattered into dust.” The image of a mirror burst into speckles of light that drifted about and faded, one by one. “She sent us out to hunt down every last shard. Most of them were lost to us, sunk to the depths of the sea, but some we managed to recover. One we located in the heart of a human boy, a Prince of Arendelle.”

A silhouette of the late King appeared, shrinking down until he looked only a child, albeit one on the cusp of adulthood, all gangly-limbed and awkward. “The Queen ordered him brought to her palace as well, so we did as she bid. There she made him her consort, thus by her decree he could command us.” Girish paused, then lowered his arms, and the lights went out. His shoulders were slumped. “None of us know what happened after that. The palace was destroyed, the Queen vanished, and the Prince returned home, his heart now free of ice. But the Queen’s orders stood and still stand to this day; Kai is second in command only to her.”

“So… you used a shard of this old mirror on Hans.” Kristoff concluded. Girish nodded. “And you only helped Anna because the King asked you to.” Girish nodded again. “And he’s the only person who might have known how to get rid of one of those shards.”

“Queen Gerda was with him when the palace was destroyed, we suspect, but yes.” Girish confirmed.

“Great, that’s really helpful.” Kristoff huffed, flapping his arms in the air. “The only people who could have helped us are all _dead_. That’s just fantastic.”

“Perhaps not all.” Axel interjected, making Kristoff and a few of the trolls jump. He’d honestly forgotten the two southerners were still there. “You say your Queen _vanished_ , not that she died. Did you never recover a body?”

“There was no body, nor any trace of her magic, save in one place.”

“Where?” Axel demanded.

“I believe the only remnant of our Queen left in this realm is within Queen Elsa. It is the only explanation for her powers, as she was not cursed with them, nor blessed with them, nor inherited them through her mortal blood.” Girish explained.

“Then we ask Queen Elsa to help.” Axel concluded, and turned to go. He took Hans by the arm as he went, and the younger man stumbled after him, too dazed for anything more coordinated. Kristoff watched them go for a moment, but he knew he couldn’t stay there. Most of this questions had been answered, and given that this was all because of him, he felt he had a responsibility to help fix it, if he could. There was a tiny, childish part of him that didn’t want to. If Hans turned out to truly be the ridiculous moron Anna had fallen for in the first place, where did that leave Kristoff?

But he’d meant what he said, and the idea of not helping, of leaving Hans that way just so that he could keep Anna, was worse. Because he knew he’d always wonder if she was only with him because he was actually second best to a man she only _believed_ wasn’t real. He shoved to his feet and stomped after the retreating brothers.

“Kristoff!” Petra called after him.

“Just don’t.” Kristoff shook off the plea in her tone, and hooked an arm over Sven as he bounded over, warbling a low note of concern as he nudged his way right into Kristoff’s personal space. “Let’s go, Sven.” He instructed, but didn’t let go of the reindeer as they left the troll-hop. Intuitive creature that he was, Sven stuck close to his side the whole way, silent support and a reassurance that there was at least one creature in the whole world who wouldn’t betray him.


	4. Chapter 3

Their little group was silent as they made their way back to the sled. Hans himself was stunned. He hadn’t believed it when Rune and Axel had first brought it up, and he still wasn’t entirely sure he believed it. He felt _fine_. He wasn’t behaving _that_ differently. Oh, sure, he’d given up trying to hide all the things he thought that were _impolite_ , but that didn’t mean he hadn’t always thought them.

But what motive did the troll have for lying? He’d alienated his adopted grandson, or whatever the reindeer man was to him, he’d drawn the enmity of the Southern Isles, if the look on Axel’s face was anything to go by, and he’d put his own people in a startlingly vulnerable political position. No, the troll was telling the truth, or what he thought was the truth. Except, it didn’t make any sense.

“He must have been lying.” Hans protested.

“Trolls can’t lie.” Kristoff informed him, voice hollow.

Hans scoffed, but Axel shook his head at him. “I’m inclined to believe him. You heard how the troll-man talked his way around his answers. He went out of his way to avoid lying to us. It reminds me of the stories we have of the fae.” He pointed out, thoughtful. “I wonder if there’s any truth in those stories. I must remember to look into that when we return home.”

“Your new research project aside, brother-” Hans interrupted, rolling his eyes. Axel and all his research projects. Get the man started, and he could talk for _hours_ about the most boring minutiae. “-you’re forgetting the fact that I’ve never seen a troll before in my life.”

“They can alter memories, isn’t that right?” Axel retorted.

Kristoff nodded. “First time I met them, they altered Anna’s memories. Elsa had put ice in her head by accident, so Grand-” He stopped talking abruptly, breathed deeply for a moment, and then continued like nothing had happened. “-so Girish took her memories and removed all trace of magic from them. She never remembered that she’d once known Elsa had ice powers.”

“But- Correct me if I’m wrong-” Hans sneered, because he _wasn’t_ wrong, but he had no proof save for his own measure of Kristoff’s personality, and he was used to people dismissing his insight just because he couldn’t _possibly_ have gotten to know someone well enough to predict them after only a handful of conversations. Amateurs. “After the trolls told you Anna’s heart was frozen, you brought her _straight_ to me, didn’t you?”

“Of course!” Kristoff agreed.

“Then how could a troll _possibly_ have gotten to me _first_? Unless you want to tell me they can _teleport_ now?” Hans mocked.

Kristoff frowned. “Remote magic isn’t _impossible_ , but… I don’t know.” He admitted. Then his expression hardened. “But we can ask.” He turned on his heel, clearly determined to march right back in there and demand answers. Only, before he could go far, he nearly tripped over a troll standing right behind him, looking solemn. “Petra.” Kristoff greeted, expression faltering.

Petra scowled up at him, but she looked more cautious than stern. “I don’t understand why you’re so angry, Kristoff.” She said, and when Kristoff opened his mouth to enumerate all the reasons, she shook her head. “But you’re human, even if you were raised by us, and humans _are_ strange that way. I shouldn’t have forgotten that. You won’t like the answer.” She warned him, peeking up at him from under her brows warily.

“I like not knowing even less.” Kristoff retorted.

Petra sighed, and then reached out, grabbing hold of Kristoff’s hand, even though she had to stretch onto tip-toes just to reach. Kristoff didn’t lean down to help, but she held on anyway. “Just promise you won’t vanish. You’ll come home eventually, even if it’s not soon.”

Kristoff hesitated for a long, strained moment, then nodded jerkily. “Yeah. Yes. Of course I will.” He grunted, looking off to the side with a scowl. “I’m gonna yell a lot when I do, though.” He warned. Hans looked away in disgust, because really, what sort of idiot gives anyone _another_ chance to betray them?

“We put it on the girl.” Hans had to look back at that, and he saw Kristoff go stiff with outrage, and the troll grimaced. Everything seemed to be strangely far away, and yet entirely immediate at the same time. Hans could pick out the weave of Kristoff’s shirt and the subtle cadence of confused regret under the practical bluntness in Petra’s voice. It was all startlingly clear even as Hans had the strangest feeling that it was all happening to someone else. “Just beneath her mouth, so that-”

“-so that when Hans went to kiss her-” Kristoff interjected for her, face starting to go red with contained fury. The flush rose blotchily, staining high on his cheeks, but also his ears and the middle of his forehead.

“-he’d breathe it in, yes.” Petra confirmed. “Don’t try to say you didn’t want her. I could see it in your eyes when you looked at her, you wanted her. We forgot that humans have strange ideas about just taking what they want, and I’m sorry for that.” She patted Kristoff’s hand.

“ _Strange ideas_?!” Kristoff yelped.

Distantly, Hans decided he agreed with the troll. You took what you wanted, by any means necessary. You weren’t exactly going to get anything if you _didn’t_. The world wasn’t benign like that. Except, apparently, that was just the ice, making him think that way? What a ridiculous notion, that a little piece of ice in his heart could change the way he thought, the way he behaved.

Whatever rant Kristoff obviously wanted to go off on, he strangled, and shook his head violently, more like a dog trying to shake off water than a human being. “No. No, I’m not going to- _Later_ , I’m going to yell at _everyone_ about this, but for now, I have to go and _clean up your mess_ , so, you know, thanks for that.” He snapped at the troll, who just nodded, perplexed but somewhat regretful, and let him go.

Kristoff stormed past them, his ridiculous reindeer bounding at his heels. “Come on, let’s go.” He snapped at Axel and Hans, and they followed him in silence. Hans was too stunned and confused to manage words right now. They’d get knotted up on his tongue, and he couldn’t _abide_ sounding ignorant. Not when it would only earn mockery and dismissal.

They returned to the sled, and Kristoff set about reattaching the beast to the reins. His movements at first were rapid and jerky, but the longer he worked, the more he slowed, until finally his hands went still, and he heaved a sigh before turning around, a stubborn set to his jaw. His eyes met Hans and held them, and for the first time, he wasn’t glaring. “Alright, I’m gonna say this, and you’re gonna listen, okay?” Hans raised an eyebrow, not very impressed by that declaration. Kristoff huffed, and Hans was entirely convinced he’d picked that mannerism up from his reindeer. “I’m sorry.”

“What?” Hans blurted out, before he could help himself.

Kristoff nodded once, as if to hammer the point home. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen to you, I didn’t ask them to do it, but they did it because of me, and I’m sorry for that. I’ll do everything I can to help you undo this, I swear.”

For a moment, Hans was speechless, but then disdain managed to help him untangle a few sentences from the swirling jumble of thoughts and notions he wanted to convey. “You really are an idiot, aren’t you?” He laughed derisively. “Your apologies fix nothing, and your good intentions are infantile. But don’t worry, I’m sure your, ah, _family_ appreciates having such an amenable scapegoat.” He assured the man, reaching up to pat his cheek condescendingly before climbing up onto the driver’s seat before he could be relegated to the back of the sled again.

“ _Son of a-_ ” Kristoff drew in an audible breath. “It’s just the ice talking. Don’t get mad.” He muttered to himself as he went back to preparing the sled for travel. A moment later, however, Hans caught a quiet grumble of “- _scapegoat_ , I’m no one’s scapegoat, what does he-”

“Well done.” Axel drawled sarcastically as he climbed into the back. “Another comment like that, and you might actually manage to alienate our only aid in this venture. I’d have thought, even as cold-hearted as you apparently are now, you’d have more tactical sense than that.”

“Oh, please.” Hans scoffed, casting a look down at Kristoff as he fastened various harnesses and buckles. “His guilt’s so strong he’d help us even if we treated him like trash. Would you like me to prove it?” He asked with a flash of a mean smile.

“No, that won’t be necessary, thank you.” Axel ordered, tone crisp and commanding.

Hans looked away from him sharply, _hating_ him for a brief moment. The feeling was familiar, and he knew he’d always felt this way about most of his brothers. They had their good moments, certainly, but mostly they were overbearing and cruel, and the only reason they cared about him at all was because he was, unfortunately, related to them, and so any slight to him was a slight to the family. He’d _always_ resented them, and the way he was never allowed any power because there were _twelve_ other people who snatched at it first, and by the time it reached him, there was nothing left.

Kristoff swung up onto the seat beside him, shot him a side-ways sceptical look, then clicked his tongue at the reindeer to prompt him to move. “Back to the castle, Sven. You know the way.” He instructed, as if the animal could _understand_ him. Idiot.

The scorn was comfortably familiar too, but… there was a kernel of doubt in Hans, now. His memory told him he had always felt this way, never had much patience for fools except for how they could be manipulated, but… but if he looked at his _actions_ , instead of his feelings, then… He’d never responded to a sincere apology, even if it was useless and stupid, with that much vitriol before.

He’d been better at hiding it, that was all, he decided, squinting a little as the sled picked up speed. He’d had less patience for that sort of thing after everything had gone wrong in Arendelle. His machinations had come to nothing, and he just didn’t have the patience to craft another persona, another plot, just yet. Give him time, he’d get there.

“Hey, um… Hans?” Kristoff asked, and Hans looked over, a little wary of the man’s suddenly cautious tone. He looked tentative, kind of worried and maybe… _awkward_ as he stared at Hans, eyes darting from one side of Hans’ face to the other as if he wasn’t quite sure where to look. “Are you… okay?” Hans sneered at him for _that_ insipid question. Kristoff, oddly, didn’t react to that except that his awkwardness lessened and his worry increased. “Only, you’re, um… crying, a bit, there.” He pointed out, staring at Hans with soulful eyes and a furrowed brow.

Startled, Hans didn’t manage to stop himself before he reached up to check. For a moment, he was sure Kristoff was going to snicker about making him check, but then his fingertips encountered wetness just under his lashes. He blinked down at his fingers in surprise. “Just the wind getting in my eyes.” He assured Kristoff.

“Alright. If you say so.” Kristoff agreed dubiously, but he did, at least, return his gaze to the path ahead and let the subject drop. Several minutes later, however, he made an abrupt sound of understanding. “Oh!” He breathed in realisation. “I get it!” He exclaimed, and then he laughed, and, inexplicably, shot Hans a look like he expected Hans to be in on the joke.

“What?” Hans asked, baffled.

“Scapegoat.” Kristoff said, as if that explained what he was suddenly so happy about. “You’re only a scapegoat if you’re _not at fault_ , but you’re being blamed anyway. I guess you are nice underneath all that ice, huh?” He asked conversationally, elbowing Hans companionably.

Hans stared at him, wondering how any one person could be _that_ stupid, and still survive to adulthood. “Do you… somehow believe that being called stupid is better than being called cruel?” He asked, already knowing what the answer was going to be.

“Well, yes.” Kristoff confirmed. Hans rolled his eyes, and decided not to talk to the man anymore, just in case the stupid was contagious. Kristoff snorted at him. “But hey, maybe that’s _because_ I’m stupid. You clearly think the opposite, and you’re pretty much an asshole at the moment. I guess maybe we all just like to think even our faults are better than other people’s.”

Hans kept to his resolve not to speak, and kept his gaze focused outward at the darkness. Every now and then a tree trunk entered the sphere of light from their lantern, but for the most part it was only shadows. The arrhythmic pattern of trees sliding in and out of sight started to lull Hans into a strangely meditative state, and it was only long-honed paranoia that stopped him drifting right off to sleep. Instead he propped his cheek on his fist and let his brain switch off for a few minutes.

Above them, curtains of light bloomed across the sky. Kristoff elbowed Hans in the side, so he shot the oaf a droll look that only made Kristoff pull a ridiculous face right back. “Look, the sky’s awake.” Kristoff said, pointing upwards as if Hans could somehow have missed it.

“Lovely.” Hans drawled, unimpressed. Really, the whole thing was so childish and insipid. Oh, yes, pretty lights in the sky, because that was so important and meaningful. It changed their lives not at all, so why make such a ridiculous fuss?

The rest of the journey was uneventful, and they returned to the castle soon enough. Kristoff yawned loudly as he directed them to the royal stables and set about getting the reindeer settled for the night. Hans climbed down, a little stiff from hours sitting unmoving as they travelled, and went in search of a place to sleep.

There were two guards waiting just beyond the stables, and one of them gave a perfunctory bow before offering to show Hans and Axel to their rooms while they were in Arendelle. Guards, not servants, and Hans couldn’t stop the darkly amused smirk from curling his lips. It was kind of cute that Queen Elsa thought a couple of guards would be enough to keep him out of mischief. It rather made him want to cause a little chaos just to prove he still could. That she and Anna might have stopped him once, but he wasn’t anywhere near beaten.

Instead, though, he just nudged his smile more towards grateful than mocking, and inclined his head. “That would be greatly appreciated, thank you.” Neither of the guards looked at all won-over by his words, but Hans had learned well that a little well-placed politeness could work wonders.

The guards led him and Axel up through rooms and halls that Hans vaguely recognised. It made him think of Anna, and just how gullible she’d been. She’d believed the facade of sweet good humour and self-conscious charm without even a second thought. Of course, if the trolls were right – and really, Hans still couldn’t quite believe it – then it hadn’t been a facade, had it? The idea that that bumbling fool was his true personality, unwarped by magic, made him feel nauseous. If having ice in his heart was the price to pay for being able to see _clearly_ , then he’d be quite willing to pay that price.

“Here, Your Highness.” The guard said, shaking Hans out of his thoughts. The man was gesturing to a door, and Hans thanked him with a polite nod before opening the door. Perhaps, he thought as he took in the comfortable suite with a distracted eye, he would need to give serious thought to convincing Axel and Rune – and _Kristoff_ , too – to give up this quest to ‘heal’ him or whatever nonsense they were telling themselves. He was perfectly happy the way he was, after all.

“Oh! You’re back!” Rune’s head popped up over the back of the sofa, and then there was a thump as he dropped the book he’d been reading on the table and sprang to his feet. “What did they say?” He asked, looking between Hans and Axel with wide, concerned eyes.

“You were right.” Axel informed him bluntly.

Rune deflated, and offered up a weary smile. “I didn’t want to be.” He admitted ruefully, which Hans thought was a ridiculous sentiment. Then, of course, Rune had to get more ridiculous, by looking at Hans and asking; “How’re you doing?”

“Well, I’m still not entirely convinced.” Hans pointed out dryly.

“I guess you wouldn’t be.” Rune acknowledged, rounding the sofa to clap a hand to Hans’ shoulder and give him a determined look. “But you don’t have to carry this by yourself. We’re going to figure this out, I promise.”

Hans had to resist the urge to roll his eyes. “You do that.” He drawled, patting Rune’s hand in a mocking attempt to be reassuring. “I’m going to bed.” Rune’s brow crumpled into concern, which Hans ignored as he retreated to one of the bedchambers off the lounge area. He made sure to leave the door just a little ajar though, to let sound through better, and cocked his head to listen even as he approached his luggage, which had been arranged neatly at the end of the bed.

“So, tell me everything.” Rune insisted, and Axel did. He detailed the meeting with the trolls with his usual crisp, linear efficiency. He did get a little bit sidetracked by his curiosity about the fae, but Rune didn’t appear to absorb much of that, interrupting him before he could get going. “So, we’re really fumbling about in the dark here, is what you’re saying? No one still living knows how to fix Hans?”

“That’s about the sum of it, yes. I’m hoping we’ll be able to convince Queen Elsa to _attempt_ some sort of… cure, but with what little experience she seems to have, I’m doubtful she’ll have sufficient knowledge or control.” Axel replied irritably. Hans muffled a soft snort of agreement as he changed out of his day-clothes.

“Mm…” Rune agreed, quiet and subdued.

“What is it, Rune?”

“Maybe the late King and Queen left journals? They have a pretty nice library here, too, so maybe you could do some research?” Rune suggested, although he didn’t sound hopeful.

“I will do that.” Axel agreed. “Don’t look so miserable, Rune, we haven’t run out of options to explore yet.” He chided. Hans sneered to himself as he splashed some water into the wash basin on the dresser and set about cleaning away the grime of travel. They were so determined to ‘fix’ him when there wasn’t anything to be fixed. It hadn’t crossed either of their minds that maybe he didn’t want to be any different than he was now, if he had ever been. No, they’d just swooped in and taken charge, deciding how his life should go and who he should be. Was it any wonder he’d been willing to commit murder just to get out from under their over-bearing thumbs?

Irritated, he scrubbed his face dry a little more aggressively than was needed, and tossed the towel at the top edge of the mirror to the accompaniment of Rune’s voice in the other room saying; “No, I know. I’m not giving up, I just hate seeing him this way. I miss my brother, you know?”

Getting into bed, Hans laced his fingers together over his sternum and stared at the ceiling as he considered his options. In the other room, Axel was spouting platitudes and Rune was lapping them up, feeding off each other to bolster their own delusions of power and authority. Hans _could_ go along with it, not help or hinder, but allow them to burn themselves out on their foolish quest, and then drag them home with a well deserved ‘I told you so’, but…

There was always the possibility that they’d succeed, somehow, in reverting him back to that insipid fool he’d played at being – apparently _had_ been – before. Whether because there actually _was_ ice in his heart, and they somehow managed to remove it, or because they found some other thought-altering magic, and fooled themselves into thinking they were fixing the problem, when actually they were guilty party committing the crime of stealing his free will. Either way, Hans didn’t want that, thank you very much. He was going to have to find a way to sabotage their quest, but he’d have to be careful.

He had a horrid feeling that too great a protest on his part would only leave him relegated as ‘not in his right mind’ and thus excluded from any decision making. So he would have to appear a little more amenable. Sceptical, because they wouldn’t accept whole-hearted support from him after his attitude so far, but perhaps… If he played it right, perhaps he could pull of disconcerted doubt? If he presented himself as wanting to _know_ , for _sure_ that his mind was his own, they would probably eagerly accept his help in an effort to show him what was wrong.

If it weren’t for the fact that he was sure there would be guards nearby, making sure none of the Southern Isle Princes wandered from their rooms during the night, Hans would have made his own trip to the library once his brothers were in bed, so he could dispose of any books that might help them. As it was, he would just have to do his best to find them first tomorrow, and hide them out of sight. As for letting Elsa try and ‘thaw’ his heart, well. He scoffed under his breath. He wasn’t letting her or her magic anywhere near him. He’d seen what she’d done to Anna, and he really wasn’t interested in becoming an eternal ice sculpture.

No, and he was almost certain he could convince his brothers not to force him into it. The fact that he knew he would have to coerce them to his side rankled, made bile surge in his throat, but he was used to it. No one had ever, really, been on his side. It was why he’d learned to read and manipulate people so well. If no one would act to his benefit, he would make them, and he would make them _glad to do it_.

Beyond that, he was going to have to stay on his toes, and adapt fast to whatever his brothers’ _research_ threw his way. He was not, after all, well versed in the world’s magic and what it was capable of, and there wasn’t much he could do to prepare ahead of time.

A soft knock at the door made him lift his head, just in time to see Rune peeking around the edge of the door. He gritted his teeth on the bitter snarl that wanted to leave him, about there being no point to knocking if you were already planning not to _wait for permission_ to enter. “What?” He asked, managing to scale down from a snarl to simple weariness.

“Just wanted to wish you a good night.” Rune offered, then smiled cheekily. “And make sure you weren’t brooding yourself into a mood.”

“I’m fine, Rune.” Hans sighed. “It’s just been a long day. There’s a lot to process.”

“I’ll bet.” Rune agreed. “Get some sleep.” Hans couldn’t stop the droll, unimpressed look that surfaced in response to _that_ piece of uselessness, and Rune laughed at him as he disappeared, shutting the door with a decisive click as he fled from Hans’ scorn with a muffled parting shout of “Good night!” Hans didn’t bother to reply, just rolled over to snuff out the candle.


	5. Chapter 4

Elsa stared at the book in her hand without really seeing it. First thing after breakfast that morning, Axel had come to her to explain everything the trolls had said, and Kristoff had confirmed every word. The trolls hadn’t given them much information, but what little they had shared had spawned so many questions that Elsa felt dizzy with it.

There was the problem of Hans’ frozen heart, of course. It was the most immediate concern. She had offered to see if she could thaw it with her powers, but Hans had recoiled from the idea, and after the revelations of the morning, Elsa hadn’t felt like pushing it. Especially considering she didn’t think she’d be able to do a damn thing anyway.

Then there was the issue of the trolls. They had deliberately and knowingly endangered her sister’s life, for a terribly selfish reason. As Queen, and as Anna’s sister, she felt she ought to do something about that, but given how magically powerful the trolls were, making an enemy of them seemed like a worse idea than making an enemy of the Southern Isles. Still, she might need to make a journey out to the mountains herself at some point, to make it perfectly clear that such actions against Arendelle’s citizens would not be tolerated.

There was the mystery surrounding this Queen the trolls had spoken of, and her potential connection to Elsa. Distractedly, she lifted one hand from the cover of the book, and stared at her pale, shaking fingers. She’d spent the last thirteen years fearing her powers, and now, just at the moment she’d begun to accept them, that creeping dread was back. What if they weren’t _hers_? What if she’d been _infected_ somehow, by this Troll Queen who seemed to think nothing of freezing someone’s heart and kidnapping them?

And there was the final problem Elsa was wrestling with. Her parents. They had said nothing to her of this Troll Queen, even though they _must_ have wondered. If the trolls, who had never even met her until she was eight, could suspect she had some connection to their Queen, surely her parents, who had known her from the day she was born, must have had their own suspicions. Was that why they’d been so willing to lock her away, instead of allowing her to find acceptance among the people? Had they feared her, as she’d learned to fear herself?

Elsa screwed her eyes shut, hurting and so irrationally _angry_ that if felt like she was going to come apart at the seams. She had so many _questions_ , but they were _dead._ They’d _left her_ with this problem, and she didn’t know what to do! Why hadn’t they _told her_? Didn’t she have a right to know? They were _her_ powers, or, at least, they were hers at the moment. She was the one who had to carry them, and the burden of controlling them to make sure no one got hurt.

“…Your Majesty?”

With a soft gasp, Elsa’s eyes flew open, and her head jerked around to stare at Axel. He gave her a worried look and pointed, wordlessly, at the book she was holding. It was now encased in ice. Elsa made a quietly despairing sound, and called up memories of Anna. Anna, who would never abandon her to deal with something like this if she knew, who would stand by her no matter what, and wouldn’t keep secrets from her, even when perhaps she should. She remembered the weeks following her coronation, where the people had accepted her and rejoiced in her powers.

“Sorry, I’m… a little distracted.” Elsa murmured to Axel as the ice melted and the water evaporated, leaving the book miraculously unharmed. Good thing, too, because it was a rare old text about magic, and it was one of the few resources Elsa had managed to find.

The five of them were currently searching the royal library in the hopes of uncovering anything that might so much as hint at an answer, but the search was a long and tedious one, and it wasn’t going very well. Elsa had hoped to find some record in her mother’s hand, her mother had _always_ kept a journal, but so far, there was nothing. She’d found plenty of other things in her parents’ handwriting, but only a few books about trolls, and none of them written any later than three hundred years ago.

“What distracts you?” Axel asked, matter-of-fact.

Elsa sighed softly, and tried to pull herself together enough to work out what she should and shouldn’t say to him. She was already off balance from the fact that her earlier anger no longer felt appropriate. Hans hadn’t been at fault for what he’d done to Anna, that blame lay on the trolls who’d magically compelled him to behave so cruelly. Which meant that his brothers had been entirely in the right to bring him back to Arendelle in search of answers, and she had been rather ungracious.

She didn’t think they blamed her for that, but it still left her in an awkward position. She didn’t, entirely, trust them, but she wasn’t sure how much of that was healthy wariness, and how much was lingering resentment that didn’t belong to them. “My parents.” She said finally. “I feel… somewhat betrayed, that they kept this knowledge of magic and the Troll Queen from me, when it might have helped… Even though I do understand why they were worried it might only do more damage.”

“Emotions rarely bow to logic.” Axel acknowledged.

Elsa smiled faintly, grateful that he’d understood, and looked down at the book in her hands again. This time, she focused on it, and flipped the cover open. ‘Runes of Magical Knowledge’, it was called, and the first section seemed to be a rambling explanation of magic as a force beyond comprehension. It repeated itself a great deal, and the book was old enough that the language felt archaic to Elsa, which made it very difficult to read.

She drifted towards the handful of tables in the centre of the library as she tried to decipher the old text. It was fairly interesting, in a theoretical sense, but not particularly helpful so far. Settling herself at the table Rune had spread a bunch of books out on, she gave up on reading the entire thing, and started flipping through it to see if anything relevant jumped out at her.

A picture of a troll flashed by, and she made a quiet noise of intrigue as she flipped back to it. “Find anything?” Rune asked, looking up.

“Maybe…” Elsa murmured distractedly. She traced the lines of neat runes with a finger as she read carefully, doing her best to absorb the full meaning of the archaic language. If she wasn’t much mistaken, it was speaking of ice magic, and the trolls. There was mention of the trolls having healing powers, but also that they were creatures of stone and ice, and thus having dominion over such things. There was also some mention of magic from the night’s sky that Elsa didn’t fully understand.

Her breath caught a little when her gaze caught on a line she didn’t need to try very hard to interpret. “ _An action done with true love is the only thing which can heal a frozen heart._ ” She read aloud, and then sighed in frustration and slammed the book shut. “It’s the same thing the trolls said about Anna.” She announced aloud, for Rune’s benefit.

“That is a very vague stipulation.” Axel’s voice complained from behind her.

Elsa looked over her shoulder at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Axel sighed in aggravation, like having to explain himself was nigh on unbearable, and Elsa gave him her haughtiest Queenly look in response, trying to convey ‘do get on with it’ without words. “How does one define true love? Romantic desire? Maternal care? Does our going out of our way to come here for him count? How does one define an action? Does that mean someone simply loving him doesn’t count? If they must demonstrate it in some way, how? Would a small gesture count? Or must it be some grand deed? It tells us basically nothing except that we must care enough to go looking for a cure, which we are doing already, so it is, essentially, useless.”

As he ranted, Axel had rounded the table to sit, elbows braced on the table and fingers interlaced, beside his brother. Elsa watched him with lips pressed into a thin line. She couldn’t exactly argue with his point, even if he was being fairly condescending about it, but she did have more practical experience than him. “I’m fairly certain it’s the one afflicted that needs to act with true love to break the spell.” She pointed out. “At least, that’s how it worked with Anna.”

Axel snorted. “Can you imagine Hans as he is now doing anything out of love?” He asked, and Elsa tipped her head to acknowledge that, no, she really couldn’t.

“I’m sure he could, if the situation was dire enough.” Rune countered. “It’s not like he’s not still _Hans_ underneath it all. All we need to do is figure out a way to get through to the real him.” Elsa stared at him, not quite certain what to make of that. On the one hand, after everything Hans had done in his current state, to think that there was any chance of getting him to act selflessly seemed insane, but on the other hand, Rune was reminding her a little bit of Anna, at least, in the steadfast faith he had in his brother.

“Uh, Elsa!”

Kristoff’s voice interrupted the strained moment, echoing out from the shelves, and Elsa rose to her feet, glad of an excuse to leave the conversation behind. “Yes, Kristoff?” She called back, even as she made her way towards the origin of the shout.

“I think we found something!” Kristoff replied, and Elsa hurried her steps. Kristoff was further away than she thought, tucked away in the darkest, dustiest back corner of the library, where the bookshelves gave way to a couple of cabinets full of bookbinding and repair tools, and a small desk for the royal librarian to use them. Kristoff was kneeing at the side of the desk, while Hans had one hip propped against one of the cabinets, a bored look on his face as he flipped idly through a book.

“What did you find?” Elsa asked as she approached.

Kristoff leaned back and gestured with one hand at the trunk that had been in the corner between the desk and the cabinets. It was at an awkward angle, and had left a thick trail in the dust from where it had been pulled out. The lid was open, propped against the corner of the desk, and the inside was haphazardly piled with books. Elsa knelt, uncaring of the dust she was getting on her dress, and picked one up. The runes on the cover were familiar, if a little bit different, but the words they spelled were nothing but gibberish. She reached for another one with her other hand, and saw that it didn’t have any writing on the cover. When she flipped it open, though, she found she had the same problem.

“I can’t read these.” Elsa said, disappointed. She sat back on her heels and let both books settle in her lap, hands limp atop them.

“What?” Kristoff squinted at her in befuddlement. He picked up the first one Elsa had tried to read. “A Manual of Elemental Magics.” Kristoff read off the cover, before dropping it back into Elsa’s lap and reaching for another one. “Ar-Arithmancy…? I think that’s how you say that?” He wondered, before offering the book to Elsa and picking up another one in each hand. “The Lunar Codex. Prince Lindworm.” He looked up at Elsa with a baffled expression. “It’s all plain Norse.”

Elsa shook her head. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not Norse.” She insisted. “I recognise the alphabet, but…” She pointed at the book in Kristoff’s left hand. “That looks like it says Snok- Snokongnus Vortmihr.” Elsa announced, doing her best to contort her mouth around the odd syllables.

Kristoff blinked down at the book. “It looks like plain old Norse to me?” He offered plaintively.

Hans snorted. “Yes?” Elsa asked, giving him a cool look. “Do you have something to add?”

Snapping the book in his hand shut, Hans gave a dismissive shake of his head. “No, I just find it amusing that the supposedly _magical_ one can’t read the books that this buffoon apparently can.” He remarked cuttingly, casting the book into the shadows of the desk’s paper-sorting nooks without a second thought.

Elsa’s eyes followed the book as it landed with a thump, though, feeling her heart leap in her chest. The book had a thin ribbon marker with a little tarnished silver charm on the end that could be tucked between the pages, and Elsa _knew_ that style. One of her fonder memories was of helping her mother pick out the ribbon and charm for her next journal. It was a tradition that had survived even after Elsa’s seclusion, although instead of roaming the market with her mother, they’d had a supply brought to them in the castle. She’d never seen that combination before, though, of a gold-edged indigo ribbon and a fleur de lis charm.

“Where did you find that?” She asked, shoving to her feet and leaning over Kristoff to snatch the book up. The leather was soft and worn, but otherwise undamaged, and the same plain brown deerskin her mother had always favoured, a mark of her humble beginnings.

“It was in the chest with the others.” Hans said, off-hand. “It’s just an old journal.”

“It’s my mother’s.” Elsa informed him crisply. Hans made a small sound of understanding, but Elsa ignored him in favour of flipping the book open and looking for a date. It started in 1816, almost two whole years before Elsa was born. Feeling slightly breathless with hope and trepidation, Elsa flipped to the back of the book. The final handful of pages were empty, which was so unlike her mother that it took Elsa aback for a moment. She had always filled every last page, as far as Elsa could remember.

Turning the pages one by one until she found the last entry, Elsa checked for a date. It was dated in March, 1817, and the entry was short:

_It’s over. I can’t believe it’s finally over. It’s only been a few months since everything started, but my life from before Kai disappeared feels like it belongs to someone else. This has changed us. Kai more than me, I think. He’s… sadder, even after we got that blasted shard out of his heart. More solemn, maybe. I can’t even imagine how it must have been for him, to be deprived of everything good in this world for all that time, to have been at that creature’s mercy for nearly as long… I worry, but I know he’s stronger than he thinks he is, and I know I’ll be there to draw him back if he ever wanders down those dark paths again._

_After all, we’re home now, and we’ll be alright._

“This is it.” Elsa breathed, looking up with hope shining in her eyes. Kristoff blinked at her, looking hopeful but confused. “This is my mother’s journal from when she and my father were dealing with the Troll Queen. Thank you, Kristoff!”

Kristoff scoffed and flapped a hand in the air. “I didn’t do anything special.” He denied.

“You found it.” Elsa pressed, and then she remembered herself, and flashed a smile that was only a bit tight at Hans. “Thank you, as well, Hans.”

Hans shrugged. “I didn’t even realise what it was.” He admitted ruefully. “The first… _several_ pages are…” He cleared his throat and tried to hide a grimace behind one hand. “…rather tedious, if mildly amusing.”

Elsa glanced down at the book, and flipped to one of the earlier entries. She got a few paragraphs into the entry before it devolved into panicked rambling about how much of a fool she’d made of herself in front of _Prince Kai_. Elsa let out a little laugh before she could quite help herself, and then pressed her fingers over her mouth. Her mother had always been so composed in Elsa’s memories, but this entry read a lot like one of Elsa’s own internal monologues. Less negative and more self-conscious and a little hysterical, but it was the same rapid-fire spiral into anxiety. It was… strange, and strangely good, to find that they had this in common.

Suddenly, Elsa missed her mother more than she could say. She screwed her eyes shut against the sudden burn of tears, but was forced to open them again when she felt hands on her own on the book. Kristoff was standing in front of her, looking concerned. “You okay?” He asked, awkward and uncertain.

Elsa drew in a breath to compose herself, and nodded. “I just miss her.” She admitted. Then she pushed the swirling emotions aside with the ease of long practice and turned back towards the centre of the library. “Why don’t you two haul that chest out and bring it over to the tables?” She suggested, in a tone that was just regal enough to make it more an order than a request. “Then Kristoff can go over them for anything useful.”

Kristoff groaned childishly, which made Elsa smirk where he couldn’t see. She reached the tables long before Kristoff and Hans emerged from the shelves, both of them a little red in the face from exertion and strain, although Hans hid it better. Kristoff, even, felt the need to exaggerate, and flopped into a chair once the chest had been deposited with a groan of pure relief while Hans straightened his lapels and tried to pretend he was entirely unruffled.

Elsa glanced up from her mother’s journal to nod an acknowledgement to them both, but that was all. She was skimming the earlier entries to see if anything relevant had come up, and she was glad she had, because in the autumn of 1817, her mother began complaining that Kai was acting strange; distant and cruel were two of the words she used most often. And then, that winter, he went missing.

What followed was a series of increasingly dire entries documenting her mother’s search. Of course, all of Arendelle had mobilised in search of their missing Prince, but the townsfolk and the guards and the previous King and Queen had had no luck. Her mother, on the other hand, had seen Kai talking to a strange woman before he disappeared, and when a week had passed with no sign of Kai, and everyone she tried to tell laughing at her stories of an ice-sleigh pulled by strange snow-beasts, Gerda had packed a bag and set off into the mountains herself.

After many trials and adventures that Elsa decided she would go over in detail later, Gerda finally made her way to the Troll Queen’s palace. She went in disguised as a servant, one of the changeling children the trolls took from nearby settlements, and spent months trying to find and then free Kai. Elsa tried not to let it wind her up, because she knew that her mother had succeeded and both her parents had made it home safe, but…

Finally, there was the entry that held the answer. Elsa stared blankly at the page for a minute, suddenly annoyed that they’d gone through all that trouble for an answer that was so painfully simple. Sighing, she marked the page with the ribbon and shut the book with more of a snap than she’d meant to, then looked up to find all eyes on her. “True love’s kiss.” She informed them dryly, not bothering to hide her annoyance.

Disappointment and frustration showed on every face, even on Hans’, although he tried to conceal how disconcerted he was with a roll of his eyes. Axel and Rune began to throw ideas back and forth about any way they could possibly make that work, and Axel reached across the table to pick up the journal to study for himself. Elsa let him without protest, looking over at the last member of their impromptu little research group.

Kristoff had one of the strange books in his hands, and he was frowning down at it, but his eyes weren’t moving, so Elsa suspected he wasn’t actually reading it. As she watched, his frown grew deeper and deeper, and for a moment Elsa could have sworn he looked… She wasn’t sure she had a word for it, but it had concern spiking through her viciously all the same. “Kristoff?” She called quietly.

He looked up at her, and whatever odd thing had been showing on his face was abruptly hidden behind a wall of stubborn determination. He took a deep breath, let it out very slowly and carefully, and then asked “What about Anna?”

Elsa blinked. “What about her?” She echoed, confused.

“She-” He stopped and dropped Elsa’s gaze, gesturing jerkily at Hans. “I don’t know if she was _in love_ with him, before- But she could have been, and if he’s _not_ really the evil asshole we thought he was, then… Could Anna fix it?” He asked, and he sounded almost angry.

Elsa stared at him, her eyes slowly widening as she realised exactly what Kristoff was suggesting. It hurt, to realise exactly how much he might lose, if he was right, and just how much courage and honour it must have taken for him to actually say it. She opened her mouth, but she found she didn’t have any words, and she looked helplessly over at the man in question. He, too, was staring at Kristoff, expression slack with incomprehension.

“It… might be worth a _try_?” Rune suggested tentatively.

Elsa looked back to Kristoff, expression crumpled in concern, but he only nodded once and got to his feet. “I’ll have Henrik arrange for passage to Corona for the four of you, then. And… I suppose I should send Anna a letter, explaining… everything.” Elsa sighed, dropping her gaze to the table as she tried to work out exactly how she was going to phrase that. She couldn’t not. It wouldn’t be fair to drop Hans on Anna without warning after everything he’d done.

“Three.” Rune corrected. When Elsa looked up in surprise, he gestured at the books Kristoff had left behind. “Hans doesn’t need both of us as an escort, and I have a few ideas about those I’d like to test. If I can work out how to read them, I can keep looking for alternative ideas.” He paused, and then grimaced. “If I’m permitted to stay, Your Majesty?”

“Of course.” Elsa confirmed.

“We’d best make sure we’re packed and ready, then, Hans.” Axel said, standing and gesturing for Hans to follow him as he exited the library. Hans gave his back a bitter look, then shoved to his feet and strode after him. Kristoff watched him go with his face set into a determined scowl. “I’d better- Anna shouldn’t have to deal with them alone, right? I should go with them.” He said, glancing at Elsa only briefly before glaring at the door again.

“I think so, but it’s your choice.” Elsa reminded him quietly, rounding the table to lay a hand on his arm. This time, the glance Kristoff threw her managed to soften enough that she could read the gratitude there. “Even if it works, Anna will still be glad to have you there.” She added.

Kristoff let out a heavy sigh that dragged his shoulders down, and nodded wearily. “Yeah. I’d best go get ready, then.” He added, and left the library in what was definitely a slump. Heart heavy, Elsa took a moment to brace her hands on the table and let her head hang between her shoulders. She wished, for one selfish moment, that this could have been over once they’d sent Hans home, that none of this drama had returned to Arendelle to disrupt the happiness they’d just begun to build for themselves.

Then she reminded herself that living a lie never worked in the long run, and it would have come out eventually. And it would have hurt more if this had happened in a year’s time, or two. Better to deal with the truth now, than let the lies build up. She pulled herself together, one piece at a time; lifted her head, straightened her shoulders, and steeled her heart.

Anxiety continued to whirl in the back of her mind, though, no matter how she tried to lock it away. The stability she’d thought she had was crumbling, and she had no idea what was going to happen in the long run. She tried not to indulge the dire possibilities unspooling in her mind as she rounded the table, aiming for the doors, her fingers trailing absently along the smooth, polished wood because the solidity of the furniture was oddly reassuring.

Her fingertips encountered a raised bump, knocking her out of her thoughts and looking down, because if someone was defacing the library tables, she wanted to know, but it wasn’t any sort of irregularity in the wood. Her fingers had left a trail of glittering frost branching out into pretty fractals, and the bump she was touching turned out to be a little disk of frozen water. A few inches away, just beyond the spread of her frost, was a matching droplet, this one liquid and unfrozen, but still gleaming with the light of Elsa’s magic.

Elsa stared at the pair of teardrops on the wood, then at the chair situated before them, and then at the door in abject confusion. That, after all, was where Hans had been sitting.


	6. Chapter 5

Anna was wearing a rut in the palace courtyard, pacing as she waited for the ship from Arendelle to arrive. For Kristoff and _Hans_ to arrive. “What the hell is that about?” She asked, for the umpteenth time. Thankfully, her cousin had the patience of a saint, and simply offered her a commiserating smile instead of yelling at her to shut up. “I mean, Elsa _said_ that Hans got his heart frozen – I mean, literally frozen, because, he _is_ a cold hearted jerk – but _I_ got my heart frozen, and it turned me into _ice_. It didn’t make me- _not me_.” Anna paused, and looked over at her cousin. “Did it?”

“Not from what I remember?” Rapunzel offered with a one-shouldered shrug.

Anna nodded and resumed pacing. “I should have gone down to the docks.” She said, something she’d also said before, and so she knew what Rapunzel was going say next, but she needed to hear it. She needed to be reminded not to go tearing off down the streets to be the first one to greet Kristoff. Preferably with a hug that would last for days.

“It’s definitely better to have that reunion in private.” Rapunzel pointed out, and Anna nodded, turning abruptly as she almost walked over the flowerbed that bordered the walls of this courtyard. “Besides, it wouldn’t hurry things up that much. We’re really not that far from the docks, even though the castle is in the middle of the island.” Rapunzel laughed.

“I know, I know.” Anna agreed, taking another hairpin turn and stalking back across the courtyard. As she passed, she noticed that Eugene had joined them, and he looked bemused.

“Is she _still_ pacing?” He whispered, but it was still loud enough for Anna to hear.

“Yes! Okay, yes, I’m still pacing.” Anna exclaimed, throwing her arms in her air. “Because- because what am I supposed to do? I think Elsa is hoping I’ll somehow fix this, but she didn’t actually _say_ anything about that. She just said that Hans’ heart had been frozen by the trolls, and she feels honour-bound to help look for a cure, which was why they were coming here. And I don’t want to see Hans again! Even if he’s apparently not really as evil as he… was.” Anna deflated, because that was a lie, and she wasn’t great with those, not after everything that had happened because of one great big stinking lie. “Okay… that’s… I mean, if he’s _actually_ the person I _thought_ he was- But I knew him for, like, two days, that’s hardly any time at all to get to know someone! Is it?”

Rapunzel slid a sideways, mischievous look at Eugene. “I don’t know, I think a couple of days is plenty enough to get the measure of someone, in the right circumstances.” She said slyly.

“What, life-threatening kingdom-wide manhunts?” Eugene retorted, deadpan.

“Exactly.” Rapunzel chirped, at which point Eugene gave in and laughed, slipping an arm around Rapunzel’s waist. She leaned into him, then looked back at Anna, her smile gentling and turning rueful. “But then I knew Mo- Gothel for eighteen years, and it took me that long to realise she’d been lying to me all along.”

“So what do I do?” Anna asked helplessly.

Rapunzel shrugged. “Just do what you can to help, for now. Your sister seems to think it’s worth a try, and Kristoff, too. You- you remember all those little things you looked back on and thought ‘I should have known’ about, and you keep your eyes open for them as you go forwards. That’s all anyone can do, really, I think. Learn from your mistakes, and keep trying.”

That was actually very good advice, really. Anna nodded determinedly to herself, and turned for another trek across the courtyard, only to freeze as the door inside opened, and- “Kristoff!” Anna yelled, delight at seeing him again overcoming all of her worry. She flung herself across the intervening distance, and he stepped forwards with a beaming grin to catch her up and swing her around. Anna looped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder once he set her down again. His jerkin smelt more like salt and seaweed than reindeer, for once. She peeked up at him. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” Kristoff agreed.

“Hello again, Anna.”

Ice sped down Anna’s spine, and she whirled around, glaring. “ _You_.” She snapped, hands balling into fists, because Hans looked just the same as she remembered him. Stupidly handsome and good-looking, with a stupid smug smirk on his stupid smug face. She was going to punch him in the face again, and damned to any supposed magic that had been done on him.

Only, Kristoff’s hand caught her arm, and when she looked at him, there was a solemn, sad look in his eyes she really didn’t like. It was enough to douse her temper, and she forced her shoulders to unwind. “I know you’re mad.” Kristoff began, sounding oddly helpless. “But, Anna, it- it really wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t _Hans_ who-” He stopped, sighed, and lowered his head. He looked so _defeated_ that it almost broke Anna’s heart. She turned back to him, reaching up to cup his cheek in one hand, and he looked at her from under his lashes and tried for a smile. “If you want to be mad at someone, it should probably be me.” He admitted tiredly.

Anna jerked backwards a little and scrunched her whole face up in confusion. “What?”

“Yes, yes, it’s all _your_ fault.” Hans interjected, tone laden with sarcastic mockery. “Woe is you, you great tragic hero. Can we just get this over with so you can all see it’s not going to work?”

“Get what over with? No, no, wait. _First_ , tell me why you think I should be mad at _you_.” Anna ordered, not bothering to look at Hans at all, simply keeping her eyes fixed on Kristoff. Her heart dropped when she realised he didn’t look sheepish or hopefully apologetic, like she’d expect if there was some minor thing he’d done that might make her a bit mad. No, he looked solemn and _guilty_ , and maybe even a little afraid. “Kristoff?” She asked, a little scared herself, now.

He took a deep breath, like he was bracing himself for something. “It was the trolls – it was Grandpabbi – that froze Hans’ heart, Anna. And- and they did it for me.” He blurted out in a rush.

Anna drew away from him a little, she couldn’t help it. The words had hit her like they had physical weight, even as her brain refused to comprehend them. “Wait. What?” She demanded.

“They- they saw that I liked you, and they-” Kristoff shrugged helplessly, and his expression went from guilty to angry. “I don’t know why, but they apparently thought it was okay to just- just freeze Hans’ heart so he wouldn’t be able to care about you anymore, just to get him out of the way so that…”

Anna felt all her breath leave her in a rush as she _stared_ at Kristoff. “So that I’d pick you.” She concluded dazedly.

“That’s fucked up.”

Shaken out of her shock, Anna turned to stare at Eugene, along with everyone else, which made the man grimace. “I’m just saying.” He defended, holding the hand that wasn’t settled on Rapunzel’s hip up as if in surrender. “That’s pretty fucked up.”

“Yeah.” Kristoff agreed on a sigh. “So I guess I feel kind of obligated to help find a cure.”

“No, I get it.” Anna assured him absently, still wide-eyed with shock at the sudden shift her entire world-view had just suffered. Then she spun on her heel to stare intently at Hans. He stared back, one eyebrow raised and a patient little smile on his face, but there was an edge to it that almost felt like he was mocking her. But then, it seemed that was just the ice, and in reality, the dorky, sweet, charming guy she’d gotten to know at Elsa’s coronation was the _real_ Hans.

Hope fluttered light and high in her chest, even as her stomach sank like a leaden weight. She decided not to examine her feelings too closely. “Okay.” She said instead, nodding firmly and crossing her arms over her chest. “Let’s do this, then.” She looked over at Kristoff, giving him her best determined look. “And once we cure him, and, you know, we prove that he actually _was_ cursed or whatever, then I’m going to find those trolls and make them sorry!” She declared fiercely.

Kristoff smiled lopsidedly at her, his eyes going soft in that way that always made her feel like she was glowing. “Yeah.” He agreed.

“Right then.” Anna announced, propping her fists on her hips and drawing herself up as much as she was able. “What’s the plan?”

“Um…” Kristoff said, abruptly dropping her gaze.

“You _do_ have a plan, right?” Anna asked, faltering a little as she looked between Kristoff, who was studying the flagstones, and Hans, who was gazing intently at the sky. “You didn’t come all the way to Corona _without_ a plan. That would be stupid, I mean-”

“Oh, no, they have a plan.” Hans assured her, glancing at her and grimacing. “It’s a terrible plan, and it’s not going to work, but try telling them that.” He added, tipping his head at Kristoff while also jerking a thumb over his shoulder.

It was only then that Anna so much as _noticed_ the man standing behind Hans. They looked remarkably alike, although he had a beard where Hans was clean-shaven except for his sideburns, and his hair was also darker, although his beard was the same colour as Hans’ hair. “Oh, this is one of your brothers?” Anna asked. “Is he one of the ones who ignored you for two years?”

Hans’ brother gave her a dry look as he bowed, ignoring Hans momentary choked-off laugh. “Prince Axel, of the Southern Isles.” He introduced himself. “And no, that was primarily Karl’s idea. His sense of humour is rather suspect.”

“Princess Anna, of Arendelle.” Anna replied distractedly, curtseying. “Karl?”

Axel gave her an unreadable look, but answered her question. “He’s one year my junior, and something of a force of nature.”

“He’s a vicious bastard.” Hans interjected, expression going flat and cold in a way that made Anna take a step back on instinct. The last time she’d seen him looking like that, he’d left her to die. Hans glanced at her as she jerked back, but otherwise didn’t react to her sudden moment of fear. “Which would be fine if he also wasn’t so damned clumsy about it.”

“Ah, yes. Nothing is worth doing unless it’s done elegantly, Hans?” Axel drawled, looking patronisingly indulgent.

Hans shot his brother a poisonous look. “Whereas you think nothing should be done unless you’ve spent a year thinking about it. Because _that’s_ such a very sensible way to live. It’s a wonder you ever achieved anything.”

“Giving serious thought to a subject is nothing to scoff at-” Axel began, a little heated, and Anna took another couple of steps away from the bickering siblings, determined not to get involved.

Instead, she turned to Kristoff and got back to the actually important subject. “So… what _is_ the plan?” She asked. Kristoff’s face fell, and Anna frowned, the leaden weight in her stomach returning. “Kristoff?” She prompted warily.

“Uh, it seems that something similar kind of happened to your- the late King, um, your father, and Elsa found one of your mother’s old journals where she’d written about what had happened, and-” Kristoff cut himself off a little abruptly, and cleared his throat. Anna just blinked at him, waiting for him to get to the point. “Well, the way- the way she, um, cured him was… was with true love’s kiss.” He finished quickly.

Anna continued to stare. The words made sense, she wasn’t having any trouble understanding their meaning, or even the implication behind them. Hadn’t she said just a few minutes ago that she’d gotten the feeling from Elsa’s letter that they expected _her_ to be able to help fix it somehow? It was just she couldn’t quite believe it was _Kristoff_ saying it. “But I don’t love him.” She pointed out.

“Ouch.” Hans drawled, entirely deadpan, pressing a gloved hand over his heart.

Anna ignored him, but Kristoff gave a tiny huff that was _almost_ laughter. Then he met Anna’s gaze and shrugged uncomfortably. “You did before.” He pointed out. “The only reason you don’t now is because you _thought_ the person you’d fallen in love with was a lie.”

There had been that fluttery feeling of hope when she’d realised that maybe the Hans she thought she’d known really had been real, but… She shook her head. “I knew him for a _day_. You said yourself that’s not long enough-”

“To marry someone.” Kristoff interjected, painfully gentle and sad.

And he was right. No one had objected to the fact that she’d thought herself in love after a day, just that she’d been about to commit to it for life after only one evening. And no one had objected to Kristoff, and she hadn’t known him much longer than she’d known Hans before she’d started to think, maybe… “I- You really think…?” She asked.

Kristoff just looked at her, his heart in his eyes and showing every sign of impending breakage, and didn’t answer her. Anna felt trapped. She already knew she wasn’t going to refuse – it was better to _know_ than to put it off and live wondering – but she didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want to kiss Hans and have it work and lose Kristoff forever. She didn’t want to kiss Hans and have it _not_ work and leave his heart frozen and untouchable. When Kristoff continued to say nothing, she turned to look at Hans. He was looking back, entirely unaffected by what was going on.

The faintly bored indifference on his face irritated her, and she glared at him. “I should not, and it would serve you right.” She snapped.

Hans frowned a little at that, and then, oddly, glanced over at Kristoff before looking back at her. “Maybe.” He capitulated, although it sounded like it cost him. “But I’m getting rather sick of doubting my own perception. I’d rather know, one way or the other. Besides, do you really think your relationship will survive even if you don’t?” He added, abruptly snapping back into smug self-assurance. “So you’ve really got nothing to lose.”

Anna was going to kiss him, yes, but right after that, she was going to punch him in the face again. “You’re a jerk.” She informed him, before grabbing a fistful of his cravat. He looked startled in the heartbeat before she yanked him down and closed her eyes to kiss him square on the mouth. It was awkward, and clumsy, and Anna was too angry to care. Then she leaned back and opened her eyes again, only to find Hans still staring at her in shock. “Feeling less evil?” She asked snidely.

“I…” Hans began, and then stopped, mouth jaw slightly agape.

Anna’s own jaw dropped. “Wait, did it actually _work_?” She demanded in disbelief. Hans blinked, and then, for an instant, Anna could have sworn she saw something like glee in his eyes, before he stumbled back a step, all wide-eyed confusion again.

“I- I think it did.” He breathed. “Oh, god…”

Anna almost bought it. The way he was looking at her, like he was lost and she was his only hope of finding his way again, made her feel just as good as it had at Elsa’s coronation. Just as good as she felt when Kristoff looked at her with that disbelieving little smile, like he couldn’t believe how lucky he was. But she’d been fooled by him before, and she couldn’t – she just _couldn’t_ – risk that again. And there had been that moment of something triumphant in his eyes that just didn’t fit with what little she knew of the man he’d been at the coronation.

So she hauled off and punched him again.

He toppled over backwards, but this time his brother was standing behind him, and caught him before he could hit the ground. Axel called Hans’ name, and Kristoff yelped hers, but Hans just pulled himself out of his brother’s hold and pressed the back of his hand to the underside of his nose. When he pulled it away again, his glove was stained with a little patch of red. “I suppose I deserved that.” He admitted softly.

Anna glowered at him. “Yes, you did. And I’m going to do it again _every_ time you lie to me!” She yelled furiously.

“You don’t think it worked?” Axel asked evenly.

“I know it didn’t.” Anna asserted.

“Anna-!” Hans protested, reaching out to her with one hand, before faltering, and lowering it back to his side again. “You have every right to be sceptical, of course.” He acknowledged. Anna wanted to cross her arms, but she also wanted to keep her hands free just in case she felt the burning need to punch him again. Hans tried for a rueful smile, but Anna couldn’t help but feel that there was a mocking twist to it, instead of anything resembling regret. “I wouldn’t believe me, if I were you.”

“I should have made Grandpabbi come with us so that we could be sure.” Kristoff sighed.

There, again, Anna could have sworn she saw Hans’ lips twitch towards a smirk, but it was so brief that by the time she’d processed what she thought she was seeing, his expression was subdued and pained again. “Well, maybe there are magical experts in Corona.” Anna announced, because if that had been what she thought it was, if that had been Hans thinking he might be able to get away with tricking them again, then she was going to do her best to stomp on that idea until it died. She watched him closely for a moment, but all she saw was him ducking his head in a nod that managed to obscure his expression before Anna could get a read on it. Frustrated, she rounded on Rapunzel and Eugene. “Do you know of anyone who might be able to help?”

Rapunzel and Eugene looked at each other helplessly, as if hoping the other might have an answer. “I’ve never heard of any other magic users except Gothel… And I don’t think she was really magic herself.” Rapunzel hedged, grimacing a little.

“I haven’t heard of any in Corona.” Eugene agreed.

“What about nearby Kingdoms, then?” Anna pressed hopefully.

Eugene rolled his eyes. “There are legends and rumours _everywhere_. Never met any myself, of course, but you hear about these things if you run in the circles I used to.” He admitted with an easy shrug. “There are rumours about an enchantress in Ranska, and they’ve got folklore stories about old ladies who grant impossible wishes if you’re nice enough. And I heard about some immortal witch running around DunBroch, there’s supposed to be faeries _all over_ Eidal, and you get some really weird stories coming out of Prydain. Clairvoyant pigs, what’s that about?”

Anna gave an inelegant snort of laughter at that last, but stopped abruptly when Hans snickered as well. It reminded her of all the dumb jokes they’d giggled over together at the coronation, and how much she’d really _liked_ him, which only reminded her of all the reasons why she didn’t trust him right now. Ignoring him with all the false dignity she could muster, she turned to Kristoff instead. “Kristoff, you probably know magical creatures better than the rest of us. Who would be most help?”

Kristoff grinned lopsidedly. “Well, I don’t think clairvoyant pigs would be much help.” He said dryly, and Anna grinned right back. Kristoff stared at her for a moment, looking painfully happy, and then cleared his throat and went on. “Faeries are probably too dangerous, I think.” He glanced at Axel and Hans there and raised his eyebrows.

“If the folklore in the Southern Isles is accurate, they’re bad news.” Axel concurred.

Kristoff nodded. “I’d say the enchantress or the witch are probably a better bet than just someone who grants wishes, because if they’ve got a title like that, they probably studied for it, and can do magic themselves, but… Grandpabbi had a whole bunch of stories about objects that could grant wishes, so…” He shrugged.

“If the witch really is immortal,” Rapunzel interjected, “then she’d probably be the better bet, right? She’ll have had longer to collect knowledge.”

“Good point!” Anna agreed, relieved to have a plan. “Then I guess we’re going to DunBroch!”

Eugene sighed happily. “I’ve always wanted to see the highlands of DunBroch.”

“You guys want to come?” Anna questioned, startled, although she wasn’t really sure why she was.

Rapunzel smiled. “We want to help.” She assured Anna, and then offered her a cheeky little smile. “Besides, we’ve both always wanted to travel, wanted adventure, right?” She glanced up at Eugene, who nodded, bottom lip stuck out in a pout of thoughtful acceptance. “And hey, now we’re rich enough to do anything we want to do, and we can go anywhere we want to go.” Rapunzel sing-songed, and while Anna didn’t have a clue what that was about, Eugene obviously did, because he dissolved into helpless laughter, burying his face in Rapunzel’s hair.

“Wait…” Hans interjected, looking around at them all one at a time, wide-eyed and baffled. “You guys really want to go _all_ the way to DunBroch, just to ask a witch _if_ she can tell whether I’m still… cursed?” He asked in disbelief.

“Why not?” Anna shot back, giving him a hard look. “Unless you’re scared what she might say?”

Hans sighed, closing his eyes and dropping his head in resignation. “I suppose it’s closer than Arendelle.” He agreed reluctantly. Then he looked up and smiled sadly at Anna, and she had to look away before she did something stupid like try to comfort him. If this was an act, she really was going to punch him in the face again.

“You know…” Eugene began, and when Anna looked up at him, she found him watching Hans with an unusually solemn, thoughtful expression on his face. “Speaking of immortal witches, do you think Gothel might have had anything that might help? I mean, she must have been interested in magic, given everything. She might have had books or whatever. We could grab them and take them with us. You know, just in case.”

“I’m not still cur-” Hans began to protest, and then he cut himself off and shook his head. “Never mind. Good idea.” He said instead, giving a pained grimace and turning away. “I think I’ll explore the city while you guys do that.”

“Whoa, hey!” Anna snapped, bolting after him as he retreated back through the doors. “You’re not going anywhere by yourself until we _know_ that you’re not cursed anymore.” She informed him, falling into step with him. Behind her, she thought she heard Axel inquiring whether he might accompany Rapunzel and Eugene to fetch the books, but then the conversation was drowned out by Kristoff’s rapid footsteps catching up with them.

“Of course not.” Hans agreed tiredly.

Kristoff caught Anna’s arm before she could reply, and drew her a few paces back from Hans. “Easy there, fiesty-pants.” He murmured fondly, but Anna was too frustrated to let that calm her down. She glared at him, and he sighed. “Look, I’m not saying you’re wrong, but… but if you’re right? Then the real Hans is under there somewhere, and he’s probably going to remember this when we _do_ break the curse, and… I don’t think we should trust him, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be kind, right?” He asked awkwardly, almost uncertainly, like he really wasn’t sure.

He had a point, Anna knew he did, and she wished she could be that much of a decent person, but it was all too easy to imagine where that path would lead. “I can’t.” She whispered, wondering if they were actually far enough back to keep Hans from overhearing or not. “I just can’t, Kristoff.” She paused, and then it burst out of her in an angry, desperate rush. “I liked him too much, okay? And if I start trying to be nice to him when I’m _not sure_ , I’ll _forget_ that I shouldn’t trust him, because I _want_ to trust him. But then he’ll stab me in the back again, and- I can’t handle that! I will lose my mind in an epically spectacular way and it will be _terrible_. Like, broken furniture levels of rage and I’d probably get snot and tears _all_ over- Sven?”

They had reached the front of the castle over the course of her rant, and the sight that met them in the courtyard below was enough to entirely derail her apocalyptic prophecy for the future that would come of her being nice to Hans. Sven was standing there- or, well, standing was a bit generous, because his forelegs were splayed out in front of him in such a dramatic ‘let’s play’ pose that his chest was almost touching the flagstones. The pose was being directed at the rather magnificent white stallion in front of him, who had its head lowered and its ears back in a furious glare.

All of it over the honest-to-god _frying pan_ that they were playing tug-of-war with.

Kristoff groaned and rushed forwards with a shout of “No, Sven! You don’t steal from the palace guard’s horse!” while Anna just clapped her hands over her mouth to stifle her sudden laughter. Sven’s eyes rolled towards Kristoff, even as he refused to let go of the frying-pan, and he gave his human a doleful, pleading look. Anna gave up trying to pretend she wasn’t laughing and wrapped her arms around her stomach as if that might help.

Movement in her peripheral vision caught her attention and she glanced over at Hans. The Hans she’d met at the coronation, the version that was apparently the _real_ Hans, would have laughed along with her at this sight, she thought. He’d laughed at similarly ridiculous alterations Anna had made to a few of the paintings or statues when she was younger. But instead, he was rubbing at his eyes with his thumb and forefinger, like the more advanced version of pinching the bridge of his nose.

She sighed, mirth dying away. It was like Elsa all over again, she thought dryly, and that comparison caught her in the act of walking towards Kristoff and Sven and froze her in place. It really was just like the issue with Elsa. From the initial closeness, to the first betrayal, to the way she _thought_ she was getting through to them but actually wasn’t.

Of course, she hadn’t been nearly as close to Hans as she had to Elsa, and Hans had tried to kill both her _and_ her sister, where Elsa had only _accidentally_ done her and the kingdom any physical harm. Still, it was undeniably true that she wanted to save both of them just the same. She spun on her heel to face Hans, and he jerked a little where he stood, startled by the motion. “Come on, Hans, let’s go save Sven from getting _arrested_ or something.” She said it like a challenge, like a dare, with her chin raised high and refusing to look away from him.

For a heartbeat, Hans actually looked a little intimidated, a little alarmed, maybe – even – a little bit _scared_. Of her. It reminded her powerfully of the trolls and their song, the one time she’d met them. ‘ _People make bad choices when they’re mad or scared or stressed_.’ Despite everything she’d learned about them recently, it still seemed like a very important message. Hans recovered swiftly, though, and he managed a small smile as he approached her, falling into step beside her when she spun around again and continued over to where Kristoff was dragging Sven away from a very smug horse.


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays, everyone <3 I hope you've all had/will have a good midwinter festival, whichever one you happen to celebrate.

When Anna had suggested they have a look around the bookshop up ahead, Kristoff had known that she was doing it for Hans’ benefit, not her own. She was not, as a general rule, a very bookish person. She was too active and easily bored to enjoy sitting down with a good book very often. But Hans seemed more the type to enjoy reading, both for enjoyment and as a way of gathering information. Kristoff might have liked to poke around in the bookshop himself, but he could also tell that Anna didn’t much want to let Hans out of her sight right now, not even if Kristoff was watching him, so he offered to wait outside with Sven, and Anna had flashed him a complicated look that seemed to have at least some gratitude in there, along with an apology.

So there he was, sitting on a conveniently placed bench with Sven flopped out at his feet, chewing lazily on some flower he’d pulled out of someone’s window box before Kristoff had scolded him for it. Corona was a nice place, he thought absently, with friendly people and pretty scenery, but he missed Arendelle. He wanted this to be over so that they could go home, but…

Leaning forwards, Kristoff buried his face in his hands with a groan, scrubbing at his eyes with the heels of his palms and tangling his fingers in his hair. Sven nosed at his knee, and gave a whuff of obvious concern. “I don’t know, Sven.” Kristoff sighed. “I feel terrible about this whole thing, and I wish it was over, but… I wish I knew what I wanted.” He admitted, lifting his head a little, propping his chin in his hands so that he could glance over at Sven.

The reindeer was giving him a distinctly baffled look. “What do you mean?” Kristoff asked for him, and then blew out a heavy sigh.

“I want Hans to get better, because this is my fault, and he shouldn’t suffer because my family is pushy and weird. But if he gets better, then… I _don’t_ want Anna to choose him. It would only be right, but I still…”

Sven glared at him. “Maybe she won’t.” Kristoff verbalised the thought. “She chose you before.”

“Yeah.” Kristoff agreed heavily. “But that was only after Hans got his heart frozen and tried to kill her. If my family hadn’t interfered, they’d probably be happily _married_ by now.” He pointed out glumly, and then closed his eyes against the thought, because just the thought of it, the thought of never having gotten to be with Anna at all, made his chest hurt. The thought of losing her _now_ was even worse.

Drifting off into his own thoughts, Kristoff didn’t notice that Sven had another point to make until the reindeer nosed at his arm with just enough force to knock his elbow off his knee. Once he was upright again, Kristoff frowned at Sven, who just looked back stubbornly, expectantly. “She’s not just going to run back to him like it didn’t happen, because it did.” Kristoff chided for him, but even while he was saying it, he was rolling his eyes at Sven.

“I know that, but…” Kristoff shook his head. “It’s selfish of me, but I wish this could have been simple. That Hans really was just an evil jerk, and then this wouldn’t even be a problem. But it is, and it’s making everyone miserable.” He gestured in the air on that last part, but once he’d said it out loud, the reality of it made him slump.

Sven rolled his eyes at Kristoff right back, and gave him another pointed look. “Anna doesn’t want to have to choose any more than you want her to have to.” Kristoff translated.

“ _I know_.” Kristoff said again. “I know that I should just… I should bow out gracefully-” Sven snorted at the idea of Kristoff doing anything particularly gracefully, and Kristoff wrinkled his nose at him. “Okay, bow out without any drama, then. Just… make it so that Anna doesn’t have to choose, but I…”

Sven butted at his shoulder hard enough to almost tip him off the bench, and Kristoff swatted at him irritably as he shoved his fists into his armpits like he might if he was cold. He wasn’t cold. Corona wasn’t as warm as Arendelle in the summers, but it was still warm. He was just… uncomfortable, and hurting, and confused. Sven made a low rumbling noise, and Kristoff sighed. “That wouldn’t make her any happier, and you know it.”

“Yeah, I… Yeah. The problem is that means I don’t really want her to choose me, either.” Kristoff pointed out, glancing over at Sven to see him recoil in shock.

“What? Why?!” Kristoff exclaimed for him.

Laughing a little bitterly, Kristoff dropped his tightly wound stance to gesture in the air. “Because if picking Hans wouldn’t make her any happier, picking _me_ wouldn’t make her any happier, either! And I want her to be happy! I _want_ her to be happy because of _me_ , but if she can’t be, then I still want her to be happy. And instead, no matter what I do, she’s going to be upset.”

Sven crooned at him, low and sympathetic, and shoved his bulk up against Kristoff’s side, offering a hug. Kristoff wrapped an arm over his back and smiled wanly. “Thanks, Sven.” He said, and when the reindeer tipped his head back and rolled his eyes up to look at him, it wasn’t even difficult to figure out what he was trying to say.

“Just take it as it comes. Find out if Hans even _is_ better first, and then worry about the rest.”

“That’s probably very good advice.” Kristoff agreed, and then eyed Sven dubiously. “When did you get that smart?” He asked doubtfully. Sven made an offended noise of wounded dignity, and Kristoff laughed.

“I’ve always been the smart one.” Kristoff mocked, and then snorted with more laughter.

“Uh-huh, sure you have. Do I need to remind you about-” He cut himself off, because Anna had just exited the bookshop with enough force to suggest she was in a bad mood, Hans on her heels. He got to his feet warily, forehead wrinkling in concern, but she didn’t stop to explain, just marched right up to him. And then she walked into him without slowing down at all, arms coming up to wrap around him, face pressed into his chest where he didn’t have a hope of reading her expression. Kristoff stared down at the top of her head for a moment, but it was clear what she wanted, so instead of asking any questions, he just hugged her back, and looked up at Hans to see if _he_ could offer an explanation.

Hans only looked helpless and confused, though. Kristoff honestly couldn’t tell if it was genuine or not, whether Hans had upset her on purpose and was feigning ignorance, or if this was part of exactly what Kristoff had just been talking about.

Anna had seemed fairly certain that he was faking it, but there was some doubt there, too, that she wasn’t going to _let_ herself entertain. Kristoff understood that, but it made it very hard for him to judge Hans’ behaviour. After all, Anna knew him best, and if it hadn’t been for the frightened way she was stubbornly _insisting_ that he probably wasn’t cured, then Kristoff would have taken her at her word. But she’d been burned before, and she was wary, and he couldn’t be sure that she wasn’t letting her fear of being betrayed again cloud her judgement.

Anna broke his moment of contemplation by drawing back again. Whatever had upset her, she was clearly planning to ignore it, because she looked up at him with a bright, stubbornly cheerful expression. “Okay, where are we going next?” She asked, turning them and linking an arm through Kristoff’s to make it easier to drag him along as she set off down the street. Kristoff went with her indulgently. “It’s too bad we missed Rapunzel’s birthday festival, that would have been fun.” She added, though she didn’t sound particularly upset about it, and she didn’t bat an eyelash before shouting over her shoulder; “Come on, Sven. Hans, keep up!”

Hans fell into step with them, not quite close enough to brush elbows with Kristoff. “They have an entire festival for the Princess’s birthday?” He asked with mild incredulity. “That seems like a bad precedent to set.” He added at Kristoff’s raised eyebrows.

“Oh, well, I guess they wouldn’t normally, but Rapunzel was missing, see, since she was a baby. The King and Queen would do this memorial thing every year on her birthday, and the festival kind of built up around it. It was how she found her way home, actually, because of the lantern thing they’d do, so now it’s this whole _thing_ -”

“Lantern thing?” Kristoff echoed, confused. He was picturing a crowd all carrying lanterns on long sticks, and he really couldn’t figure out how that was supposed to be a fun festival thing.

“They have these paper lanterns, and they’re like miniature hot-air balloons!” Anna explained, and Kristoff made a small ‘oh’ of understanding, before confusion swept in again. “The King and Queen would release one into the sky, and everyone in the city would do one too, so it was this huge cloud of floating lights in the sky.” Anna gestured broadly with her free hand, and then sighed a little. “I bet it’s a beautiful sight.”

“It sounds very romantic.” Hans agreed.

Kristoff shrugged a little. “I guess?” He offered. Personally, he thought it sounded a little contrived and boring. If you wanted to see a cloud of floating lights in the middle of the night, there were the stars, which were much more beautiful, in his opinion. When he said as much, Anna only laughed at him. “Lanterns are supposed to be useful, not… _romantic_.” Kristoff pointed out, not half as put out by Anna’s amusement as he was pretending to be.

“The stars are useful, too.” Hans pointed out dryly.

“Well, yes, but…” Kristoff really wasn’t sure how to explain the difference, so in the end he just shrugged and gave up arguing the point. “I don’t get it.” Anna snorted, and then very nearly yanked Kristoff right off his feet as her attention was suddenly caught by something on the other side of the street.

That something turned out to be a little bakery with a display of little honey-glazed puff pastries in the shape of the sun off Corona’s flag. Anna pressed her nose up against the window, and then darted inside, Kristoff and Hans trailing bemusedly in her wake. Kristoff glanced back at Sven, left on the doorstep, but Sven didn’t look too morose, so as long as they weren’t too long, he didn’t feel too bad.

“Those little sun pastries look delicious!” Anna enthused to the woman behind the counter. “What flavour are they?”

“Apple and ginger, and a little bit of honey.” The woman replied brightly. “They’re a local special.”

“I’ll take ten!” Anna declared, and got them divided between three little paper bags, one of which she kept for herself, and the other two she shoved at Kristoff and Hans, respectively. Kristoff took his with a smile, but Hans looked like he very much wanted to protest the unasked for gift. Whether that was because he didn’t feel like he deserved it, or because he still couldn’t feel anything as positive as gratitude, Kristoff really couldn’t tell, but he still just elbowed the other man gently and shook his head while Anna wasn’t looking. Hans relented with a sigh and a faint smile as they followed Anna out of the shop.

“Om’gawrd!” Anna burbled through a full mouth. “Theesh’re sho gooh!”

Kristoff couldn’t help but laugh, and only laughed harder when she turned, and he got to see just how much she resembled a chipmunk, with her cheeks bulging as she chewed. She smiled along with him, but did swallow before she tried to speak again. “You should try them!” She encouraged, already fishing in her bag for another. Kristoff obliged and, really, they were very good, soft and flaky and sweet. He hummed a confirmation, which made Anna beam, before turning to Hans. “What do you think?” He asked.

Hans glanced at him, then down at the bag, before sighing softly, and shifting the bag to one hand. Then he lifted his free hand to his mouth, and Kristoff’s brain stalled out on him as Hans closed his teeth on the tip of the middle finger of his glove and tugged the white fabric off in single, smooth motion. That was… Kristoff had never actually looked at a man before with any sort of romantic interest, but that… He suddenly felt uncomfortably warm.

He hardly even noticed Hans trying the pastry, and barely heard his surprised exclamation of how good they were. He was knocked out of his stunned and flustered moment of revelation when Anna burst out with a “Right?!” that sounded just as flustered and awkward as Kristoff felt. “Oh! Here, Sven, I got one for you, too!”

“Uh…” Kristoff began, trying to scrounge up some words from somewhere, anywhere. “Okay.” He managed, which was ridiculous and stupid and he should probably just keep his mouth shut for now, until he managed to scrape his brain back together. Sven came to his rescue, although perhaps not on purpose, by abruptly trying to shove his nose into Kristoff’s bag of pastries – apparently he’d really liked the one Anna’d given him – so that Kristoff had to forget what had just happened in order to argue with him.

By the time they’d settled on a compromise, Kristoff felt marginally less like his brain was leaking out of his ears, so when Hans pointed out a pretty little shadowed alley with curiosity, he managed to fall into step with him without acting too awkward. Anna and Sven, of course, bounded ahead to explore, all enthusiasm and insatiable curiosity, so Kristoff accepted the silently agreed on duty to keep an eye on Hans. He meant what he’d said to Anna, that either way, whether Hans was cured or not, they ought to be kind to him, but that didn’t mean they had to be stupid, either. And he was curious to spend time with Hans, to watch his behaviour and to see if he could tell whether he was faking or not.

Not that he was any good at coming up with a topic of conversation. The silence wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, but there was nothing in Hans’ expression or posture that gave Kristoff any hint at what he was thinking. He cast around idly for something to say, and he finally actually took in the alleyway they were in, sheltered on either side by slightly crooked drystone walls draped in ivy. “Corona is really pretty.” Kristoff mused aloud, partly to invite conversation, and partly to remind himself of the fact. “I mean, I miss the mountains, but… it’s still pretty here.”

“It reminds me a little of the Southern Isles.” Hans admitted.

Kristoff glanced at him, and couldn’t help but notice that Hans had said ‘the Southern Isles’ and not ‘home’. He wondered about that, but decided not to ask. “Yeah? I’ve never been there-” Kristoff snorted at that, and shook his head. “I’ve never been _anywhere_ except Arendelle before this, but… What’s it like?” He asked.

“It’s an archipelago; seven minor islands and the main island, along with a bunch of ancillary isles. I grew up on the main island, of course, but a lot of the isles are a bit like this city, although smaller, and with less of a castle at the top.” Hans explained, gesturing at the royal palace that they could still see the top of, even over the alley’s walls and the roofs of the nearby houses.

“Wow.” Kristoff said, for lack of anything else to say. “You must have a lot of boats.”

Hans laughed. “Well, yes.” He agreed dryly, shooting Kristoff a look that suggested it was kind of obvious that he was bad at making conversation. Kristoff grinned sheepishly, and Hans relented with an indulgent shake of his head. “Most children in the Southern Isles learn their way around a boat before they turn five, royal and common alike. We also have a fairly respectable navy, a small host of merchant vessels, and a veritable fleet of fishing ships.” Hans explained, making a vague gesture in the air with his ungloved hand.

Kristoff was suddenly finding it unreasonably hard not to stare at that hand, and those surprisingly graceful fingers, and- Nope. He wasn’t going there right now. He cleared his throat awkwardly and determinedly focused on the conversation they were having. “That’s amazing.” He said, and then wanted to smack himself. “Although, I guess it must be kind of boring for you, though, growing up with it and everything. Everyone I’ve ever told about my family – you know, all two of them – have been so stunned, and it always takes me a minute to remember that to most people, it isn’t normal to know sentient rocks.” He explained sheepishly.

Hans glanced up in surprise, and Kristoff offered him a commiserating smile that he didn’t quite manage to respond to. Kristoff’s heart went out to him against his will because, cursed or not, if even such a small moment of fellow-feeling could leave him that stunned, Hans must be really lonely. But before Kristoff could do something stupid like say any of that, Sven let out a distressed moo from up ahead, and Kristoff hurried ahead to find out what was wrong.

He’d gotten himself stuck, of course, his antlers wedged awkwardly in a place where the walls narrowed at the same moment the alley took a sharp turn. Kristoff helped him free, and shoved his head down to where the walls weren’t as close so that he could get through into the open space beyond.

Said space turned out to be a garden, more or less, full of climbing wisteria vines draping themselves over the walls and a carpet of knee-high greenery splashed with the dusky purple of lavender bushes and the lilac and blue of hydrangeas, all interwoven with tiny paved paths all making their way towards the small fountain in the middle.

Which was where Anna was, standing on the lip of the pool, one hand stretched up and out to catch in the thin sheet of water cascading down through the air. Then she turned to beam at them, and Kristoff was caught by just how beautiful she was. He thought he might have said something, but he couldn’t be sure, because his entire focus was taken up by Anna’s smile and the light in her eyes and the way the water droplets in the air around her made it look like she was sparkling in the sunlight.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Anna called, delighted, and waved them over. “Come look at this!” She enthused, and there was nothing in Kristoff that could have disobeyed. He ambled over, a little way behind Sven, who was already happily slurping up some of the water from the fountain pool. He only noticed that Hans hadn’t followed him in the second before a handful of water splashed him in the face, to the accompaniment of Anna’s bright laughter. Spluttering and trying not to laugh while he had water up his nose, Kristoff grabbed her by the waist and, ignoring her playful yelling and struggling, simply stuck her under the spray from the fountain.

Anna shrieked, trying for indignant outrage, but she was laughing too hard to actually manage anything of the sort. Kristoff set her back on her feet – _in_ the fountain, just because he could – and propped his fists on his hips for a proud pose. Anna yelled a battle cry, and flung herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck and plastering her wet self up against him, thoroughly soaking Kristoff’s shirt and torso and sticking her wet hair against his neck and cheek. Kristoff yelped and spluttered, but didn’t actually hesitate to wrap his arms around her.

They stayed in the hug for a moment, and Kristoff wondered if Anna was as desperate for the indulgence as he was. He was so worried about their relationship and what the future might hold that having this moment right now felt vitally important. Because he couldn’t banish the thought from his mind, he looked back at Hans, and saw the man knuckling at his eyes. When he lowered his hands and looked over, his expression was strained and exhausted, but the moment he caught Kristoff looking, it smoothed out into something that only looked a little weary, and mostly just indulgent.

“We should get you two somewhere you can dry off.” Hans suggested, arching one eyebrow with a hint of a smirk.

Kristoff was inclined to agree with him, but Anna flapped a dismissive hand in the air. “Pfft! We’ll dry off in the sun in a few minutes; we’ll be fine. I was soaked to the waist in sub-zero temperatures last month, this is nothing!”

Hans’ other eyebrow flew up to join the first, incredulous, but Kristoff slipped right past that and straight into aghast as he returned his gaze to Anna. “What? When?” He demanded.

“Oh, it was before I ran into you.” Anna told him dismissively. “Just before, actually. My horse threw me and I landed in a stream. Then I walked to the trading post. _That_ was cold.” She announced, like it wasn’t remarkable than she hadn’t gotten frostbite or hypothermia after that. Kristoff shared a look of complete disbelief with Hans, that was interrupted when Anna suddenly asked; “Oh, hey, aren’t you going to eat those?”

Kristoff looked back to her, then followed her gaze to the paper bag still weighted with two of the little pastries in Hans’ grip. Hans looked down as well, and then back up with a smile. “We can have one each, if you want.” He offered kindly.

“Oh, no, I’ve already eaten all mine.” Anna protested, but there was no real conviction behind it.

Hans obviously caught it, too, because his smile widened, and he held the bag out to her in clear invitation. “Go on.” He cajoled, and Anna caved, shoving her hand into the bag so quickly Kristoff could have sworn he heard it tear a little. She pulled out both of the remaining treats and shoved one into Hans’ free hand. “Thank you.” He remarked dryly.

“Yuur’elhom!” Anna slurred through her mouthful. Hans was a lot more graceful about eating his, biting into it instead of shoving the whole thing into his mouth, and belatedly bringing his gloved hand up to catch the flakes of pastry that cascaded off it, as if worried about leaving a few crumbs for the birds. “Come on, I want to see if there are any more interesting shops!” Anna exclaimed suddenly, and Kristoff was so distracted by watching Hans thumb crumbs off the corner of his mouth that he was taken completely off guard when Anna grabbed his wrist to tow him along with her. She was making for a little gated archway on the other side of the garden, and she had Hans’ wrist in her other hand, and she didn’t spare a glance behind her to check whether they’d actually got their feet under them.

Kristoff was honestly getting used to it, so he just stumbled after her, and checked to make sure Sven wasn’t getting left behind. Hans, on the other hand, wasn’t so accustomed to Anna, and when they reached the main street and Anna was distracted enough by the shops to let go of them, he winced and rubbed at his wrist like he was trying to get the blood flowing again. “Sorry.” Kristoff apologised for her, but he was a little too amused for it to come off as very sincere. “She does that a lot.”

“I remember.” Hans replied, wry and maybe also kind of fond, shaking his head. “She tried to give me a friendly nudge and almost bowled me over into the shrubbery once.” He recalled, which, yeah, Kristoff could just imagine. He glanced over at Anna, who was laughingly trying to keep Sven from eating the display that was spilling out of a flower shop. She was so vibrant, in that moment, laughing brightly, hair still a little damp, that Kristoff’s heart turned over in his chest. “Do you know _how_ she got so strong?” Hans asked abruptly, shattering the moment.

Kristoff shrugged, because he didn’t, but he didn’t think it was some great mystery, either. “What else was she going to do, locked up in that castle for over ten years on her own?” He asked. Hans pressed his lips together, eyebrows knotting like he didn’t buy that answer, but he didn’t argue the point either. Kristoff wondered what exactly he was thinking, but he couldn’t begin to guess, so he shook it off, and focused back on the conversation. A fleeting thought made him snicker. “Do you think she has _any idea_ how strong she is?” He asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Sure enough, Hans got the joke, and laughed with him. “No.” He agreed firmly.

“It’s kind of adorable.” Kristoff mused, to a slightly distracted, agreeing hum from Hans.

They drifted down the street in Anna’s wake, browsing idly more than doing any actual shopping, and Kristoff found himself almost forgetting, for a few moments, the problems facing them. It was peaceful, and comfortable, and he didn’t want to remember that it couldn’t last.

“We should get souvenirs.” Anna declared suddenly, looking intently at a stationers, full of quills and inks and paper, and even a few fancy pens. “I think Elsa might like one of those pens. What about you, Hans? Do you want to get your family anything?” She asked, looking up, and Kristoff had to do a double take, because while her tone was perfectly innocent, the smile on her face was all challenge.

“Maybe.” Hans said, a little cautiously. “Perhaps for my mother… If I see anything I think she’d like.” He paused to consider that, and Kristoff watched him, curious despite himself. He didn’t actually know all that much about Hans’ parents. Then Hans smiled, and Kristoff couldn’t help but think it looked a little forced. “Maybe if we find a weapons shop.”

Anna stared at him, vibrating with some unspoken tension, and then turned and headed off down the street without another word. Hans slumped, and Kristoff found himself yet again trying to figure out if he was being genuine, and entirely unable to say one way or the other. Wordlessly, he tipped his head towards Anna, and Hans nodded, so they headed after her. Sven caught up with them a moment later, and Kristoff put a hand on Sven’s back, although whether that was to steady himself, or to keep Sven from getting over-excited, he wasn’t entirely sure.

“Is you mother a warrior, then?” Anna asked belligerently, making Kristoff jump.

“All of the royal house is trained in combat.” Hans answered her easily. “My father is the only one of us who wouldn’t so much as know which end of a sword to hold.” _That_ definitely sounded bitter, and Kristoff and Anna both shot him looks, although Anna’s was narrow-eyed and suspicious, where Kristoff’s was only questioning. Hans grimaced. “I didn’t enjoy my lessons much.” He admitted.

“No?” Anna pressed.

Hans sighed. “I knew they were important, so I put up with them, but…” He shrugged helplessly. “I would much rather have been playing with the servants’ kids.” Anna made a strangled, frustrated sound in the back of her throat and picked up the pace so that she wasn’t walking anywhere close to beside Hans anymore. Kristoff’s heart went out to her, but he didn’t think she’d appreciate anything he had to say at the moment, so he kept pace with Hans and hoped that Corona’s shops could distract her again.


	8. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year('s Eve), everyone!

Rapunzel braced her arms on the rail of the ship and sighed happily as she watched the strikingly beautiful coast of DunBroch drift past. The world was a beautiful place, full of more amazing things than she could ever have dreamed of, and she was regretting, a little bit, that catching up with her new life and learning how to actually _be_ a Princess had kept her from travelling before. Her cousin’s coronation had been the first time she’d ever left Corona, and it had given her a taste of something she’d never realised she _desperately_ wanted.

Anna was a kindred spirit in that, she thought, tearing her eyes away from the grand cliffs to look across the deck at her cousin. She was half way up the rigging, a worried Kristoff hovering beneath her as she leaned out over the water to try and get a better look at their destination. Her hair was done up in a braided knot to keep the wind from blowing it in her face, and she was in one of her warmer dresses – with actual sleeves and more than one layer – to keep her warm in the northern climate. “I can see the castle!” She shouted down in delight.

That curiosity, and unbridled delight in a world that had been withheld from her for too long, was something Rapunzel could relate to, and it was what had prompted her to invite her young cousin to come visit. She was far more bold than Rapunzel, far less damaged by her childhood, or perhaps just damaged in a different way, so Rapunzel hadn’t thought she’d _needed_ someone to come and drag her out of Arendelle, but Rapunzel remembered all too well what it was like to be eighteen and to only know the bounds of your own home. She remembered how intimidating the rest of the world could seem, and she’d wanted to give Anna a helping hand across the threshold, even if she hadn’t really needed it.

Hands snuck around her waist, hoisting her up and swinging her around, and Rapunzel was familiar enough with Eugene’s favourite way of greeting her that she only laughed and laid her hands over the top of his. Once her feet were back on the ground and she was facing out towards DunBroch again, she pulled his arms around herself and leaned back into his chest. “Taler for your thoughts?” Eugene offered, hugging her close.

“Just… wishing we’d done this sooner, I guess.” Rapunzel sighed a little sadly.

“What, gone on an epic quest to save your cousin’s ex-boyfriend from evil troll magic?” Eugene asked, sounding bewildered.

Rapunzel laughed, warmed through at the reminder that no matter how melancholy she was feeling, Eugene always knew how to make her laugh. “No!” She chided without any heat, slapping lightly at the forearm that was curled around her waist. “I just mean… travelling. Seeing the world. I feel like we’ve… wasted time, maybe?”

“Hey, now.” Eugene interjected mildly. “It wasn’t wasted. You were getting to know your parents, learning about your new role, finding your place and all that, and that’s important. And I needed to find my feet again, too, work out… who Eugene even _is_. Stuff like that takes time, so we took time. Now that we’ve made a home for ourselves, hey, the world’s our oyster!” He gestured broadly with one arm, out across the sea to the cliffs and the trees lining the horizon. “Why stop at DunBroch? Let’s go to Prydain and find their clairvoyant pigs, let’s go discover lost cities, trek through the jungles looking for treasure, browse the exotic marketplaces of Agrabah! And then, when we get bored, we can come home. Trust me, travelling isn’t half so fun if you don’t have a home to go back to when you get tired.”

Rapunzel felt her spirits lifting despite herself, and she tipped her head back to smile up at Eugene. “And then we can get married and take the throne and live happily ever after?”

Eugene pulled a face, half terrified and half guilty, like she knew he would. “I like the sound of that last part?” He offered sheepishly, and Rapunzel giggled at him. If she had been any less certain that he truly did love her, his deliberate avoidance of any formalised commitment might have made her feel insecure. As it was, she was content to wait for him, if not in patient silence, then at least with only minimal light-hearted teasing.

She was distracted from teasing him when their ship rounded a promontory, and the view Anna had been exclaiming over was revealed to all of them in its full glory. DunBroch Castle fit the landscape around it, harsh and angular, but Rapunzel thought there was a rugged sort of beauty to it. The town that spilled out around it in a great sweep down the gentler inland slope and then around to the bay at the base of the cliff was similar, built of grey stone and dark slate tile interspersed with crops of dark and sturdy trees, the streets haphazard and winding around to follow the shallowest slope up towards the castle.

Rapunzel may have gasped at the picture it made. “It’s beautiful!” She cried, abandoning Eugene’s hold to lean over the rail as if that might grant her a better look. “Oh, Eugene, look! It’s so majestic!”

“It’s certainly intimidating. Look at all those battlements.” Eugene agreed with a low whistle.

A shout caught Rapunzel’s attention, and she turned just in time to see Anna land in Kristoff’s upraised arms. “I always know I can trust you to catch me, Kristoff.” Anna informed him, planting a kiss on his cheek before hopping out of his arms and darting over to grab Rapunzel’s arm, oblivious to the minor heart attack the royal crew had just had over her little stunt. They were somewhat used to Rapunzel’s bad habit of playing monkey, but Anna took oblivious recklessness to a whole new level. “I’m so excited!” Anna said to Rapunzel, voice squeaking a little.

“Me too!” Rapunzel agreed, swept up by her cousin’s enthusiasm.

The Captain, still a little pale after Anna’s leap from the rigging, approached them and cleared his throat. “Your Highnesses.” He greeted with a bow. “We’ll be coming into dock in about ten minutes, barring any delays. If you would like to ensure you’re prepared to disembark?” He prompted politely.

“Thank you.” Rapunzel said kindly. “We’ll do that.” The Captain looked relieved.

“Hans! Time to pack your shit and get moving!” Anna hollered across the deck. Rapunzel decided that Anna really shouldn’t hang out with the sailors any more. The man in question looked up from the conversation he’d been having with one of the crewmen, aggrieved but resigned to the coarse language, and when he actually laid eyes on Anna, a smile bloomed across his face regardless.

Rapunzel could understand Anna’s doubt, after having been tricked so terribly before, and would never advise her to stop being wary, but all of her own observation showed that Hans was truly free of his curse. He had spent the entire journey helping the crew and making friendly conversation with everyone, from the lowest dogsbody to the Captain and herself and Eugene. He was more stilted with Anna, which was understandable, and wary of Kristoff, which was also understandable, if entirely unnecessary. Kristoff mostly looked like a kicked puppy when Hans was around, equal parts guilt, earnestness, and pain.

Shaking her head, Rapunzel allowed Anna to drag her off below deck to the room they were sharing. The Royal quarters on the Royal ship were not as cramped as the accommodations on most ships, but they weren’t spacious, and since both Anna and Rapunzel were unmarried, they had decided to satisfy propriety by splitting the bedrooms between the men and the women. Not that Rapunzel hadn’t shared a bed with Eugene before, but her parents had suggested they keep that on the down low until they were _actually_ married.

Anna’s method of packing was to throw everything she recognised as hers at her trunk and squash it down until it fit, which made Rapunzel cringe. But it wasn’t her place to interfere with her cousin’s things, so she just went about putting all her things in their exact right place, maybe a little obsessively, but tidying had been one of the ways she’d kept busy, before, and it had just stuck with her. She put all of her extraneous things in her trunk, like fancy dresses and jewellery and books, then she packed the barest essentials in satchel, including one book they’d found in Gothel’s tower that seemed like it might be helpful, and then made sure the absolute most important adventuring tools were on her person. Then she had to wake Pascal, who had gotten seasick, poor thing, and spent most of the journey trying to sleep off the nausea. He glared at her, but obligingly crawled up her arm and settled down to go back to sleep by her ear.

Once she was satisfied, she assessed her things one last time, fists on her hips and a proud smile on her face, and then went to help Anna fish her socks out from under the bed. Half way through double-checking all the corners of the room, there was a knock at the door. “Hey.” Eugene greeted, nudging the door open with his boot and propping his shoulder against the doorjamb. “Got your hair and your pan and your frog?” He checked with his suavest roguish grin, the lopsided, lowered-eyebrows one that she didn’t have the heart to tell him looked more ridiculous and adorable than anything approaching smooth.

Rapunzel patted the rope looped diagonally over her torso, then the frying pan attached to her belt, and then Pascal, who cracked one eye open and blew a raspberry at Eugene. “All set!” The rope – made from her own hair – had been Eugene’s idea of a clever birthday present. Rapunzel had laughed so hard she’d had tears in her eyes when he’d given it to her, but she was… not-so-secretly grateful. It had been jarring to try and adjust to having no convenient way to grab things, or swing herself around, or get into the rafters. The rope wasn’t quite as easy to use, but it was a damn sight better than trying to go on an adventure without it.

“What about you, Ginger?” Eugene asked, raising one eyebrow before he threw his ‘smoulder’ in Anna’s direction.

“I- What?” Anna asked, nose scrunched up in confusion. “Of course I have my hair? It’s attached to my head!”

“Mine isn’t!” Rapunzel chirped, because it was too good an opportunity to miss.

Anna stared at her, then at the rope she was carrying, then back at her again. “Huh.” She said, and then visibly decided not to ask. “Specifics aside, I think I’m ready to go. I’m… all packed, I think? And I’ve got a cloak in case it gets cold.” She paused, then shrugged. “I’m good.”

“Okay then!” Rapunzel enthused, clapping her hands together. “Let’s go find a witch!”

Anna’s expression fell into slightly more grim lines as she nodded, and Rapunzel withheld her mournful sigh only with effort. She didn’t like seeing her cousin so weighed down and angry. Apparently Eugene didn’t like it either, because he gave a sweeping – mocking – gallant bow and offered each of them an arm. “Shall I escort you, m’ladies?” He asked, affecting an overly-officious accent.

It put a smile back on Anna’s face, and for that, Rapunzel pressed at kiss to Eugene’s cheek as she took his other arm. Of course, they couldn’t stay that way once they actually left the room and started through the narrow halls of the ship, but there was bounce in Anna’s step as she took off ahead of them, so Rapunzel counted it as a win. She stayed on Eugene’s arm, though, and let him give her a hand up as she climbed the steep stairs up onto the deck.

Their entire party was gathered by the gangway, waiting for the ship to be tied up properly so they could disembark, including Maximus and Kristoff’s reindeer, Sven. Rapunzel hadn’t really got a chance to know the creature, but their brief meeting as they set off from Corona made her think that Sven was probably going to drive Maximus up the wall in a similar way that Eugene did.

They disembarked with much fanfare, to be met with a waiting retinue to escort them up to the castle. They had diplomatic meetings to get through before they could get to any adventuring, but Rapunzel was fairly hopeful that it wouldn’t take too long. The royal family of DunBoch seemed a practical bunch, from everything she’d read about them in her parents’ books. The carriage ride itself was enjoyable, a chance to take in the sights of the town without lingering too long, and Anna spent most of the journey hanging half way out of the window, trying to get a look at everything.

Carriages still made Rapunzel feel claustrophobic, and with Anna setting the example for impropriety, Rapunzel caved to her sillier impulses, and climbed out of the other window to sit on the roof of the carriage instead. To her surprise, the guard sent to escort them took one look at her, and instead of scowling or panicking, only grinned, and tipped her a friendly salute. Rapunzel beamed gratefully at him, and then offered a hand to Anna, so that her cousin could join her.

They must have made quite a sight, but if the statue in the main courtyard of the castle’s keep was representative of what the royal family actually did, she could understand why the guard wasn’t fazed. It was a massive thing, life-size or a little bigger, made of solid black stone, showing a large bear posed as if stepping up an incline, with a girl with a wild tumble of curls seated astride it, bow in hand, drawn and aimed just above the portcullis.

“Wow…!” Anna and Rapunzel breathed in unison.

“Queen Merida.” The guard offered by way of an explanation as the carriage came to a gentle stop. “The second monarch of DunBroch after her father put an end to the clan wars.”

“When was that?” Rapunzel asked, swinging lightly down from the roof of the carriage to stand beside the guard. Anna followed her somewhat less gracefully, flinched when Hans, newly stepped out of the carriage, offered her a hand to steady herself, and refused to look at him even as she accepted.

“Oh, almost a thousand years ago.” The guard replied, still looking proudly up at the statue. “She held this country together through the worst of the Viking raids. King Fergus might have brought the clans together, but it was Queen Merida who forged us into something that could withstand centuries.”

Rapunzel leaned a little closer, trying to get a sense of the girl’s face through the weathering of time, wondering what she might have been like. A crow perched atop the girl’s curls cawed at her, studying her suspiciously through one beady eye. “She sounds amazing.” Anna interjected.

“I’m sure she was.” The guard agreed. By that point, everyone had disembarked, and they were ushered into the castle proper to do the meet and greet with the royal family of DunBroch. Rapunzel went through the motions, but allowed Anna and Axel to do most of the talking as they explained their quest to the rulers – again, because Rapunzel knew that most of this was in the letter they’d sent ahead – and politely declined their offer of a banquet in honour of their visit.

“If you could, though, anything you might know about this witch we’ve heard of would be a great help.” Anna interjected hopefully.

The King and Queen shared a thoughtful look. “The myths of the witch in the woods have been around for a very long time.” The Queen offered hesitantly. “But I’ve never heard anything substantial, I’m afraid.”

“Thank you anyway.” Anna replied.

Axel bowed his head to add himself to the gratitude, then said “We won’t take up any more of your time, Your Majesties.” After another round of pleasantries, and an offer of horses that Axel and Hans accepted, they could finally set out on their quest. Rapunzel and Eugene rode Maximus, because they knew full well that he would kick up a fuss if Rapunzel rode any other horse, and Anna rode with Kristoff on Sven, and they set off into the forest with only a vague hand-wave in an inland direction to guide them.

“So… what are we looking for here, exactly?” Eugene asked after twenty minutes of ambling through the woods had already passed. “I mean, last time I found a witch in the woods I just stumbled across her lair. Literally stumbled. I wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t leaned against the wall to catch my breath and there _was no wall_.” He explained.

“I don’t know.” Anna admitted easily, shouting a little over the sound of raucous cawing above their heads. Hans turned around in his saddle to give her a pained, disbelieving look. Then he visibly caught himself, closed his eyes, and didn’t actually say whatever he was clearly bursting to say. “The witch has to be around here somewhere, and I figure we’ll know it when we see it, so we just have to keep looking until we find them.”

Maximus turned his head to give Rapunzel an ‘is this girl for real?’ look, to which Rapunzel just shrugged and offered him her most winning smile. Eugene propped his chin on her shoulder and huffed a dry laugh. “Hey, if nothing else, we’ll at least get a nice ride through the woods out of it.” He pointed out. Max was very clearly not impressed, but he looked forwards again and plodded on anyway. Rapunzel leaned forwards to pat his neck in gratitude, because she knew he wouldn’t put up with things like this for anyone besides her.

They rode on, minutes ticking away as they explored, looking for some sort of sign that they were in the right place. Rapunzel was a little distracted by the beautiful scenery, and more than once she had to fight back the impulse to go climb a particularly interesting tree. It was probably the fact that she was so busy staring up at the branches that saved them from wandering in circles really. Because it meant she was the first one who noticed the crow.

For the third time in half an hour. Rapunzel tugged lightly on Max’s reigns, and he paused, twisting to look at her, but Rapunzel wasn’t going to take her eyes off the crow just yet. “Rapunzel?” Eugene asked softly, warily. She flapped a hand at him to be quiet for a moment, and he subsided. “…It’s a crow.” He whispered after a moment.

“Yes, I know.” Rapunzel assured him. “I… This is going to sound weird, but I think it’s been following us.” She told him slowly. The crow cocked its head to one side, still staring at her, and then, well, _cackled_ at her. “And laughing at us.” She added dryly.

“Okay, that is kind of eerie, I’ll grant you that.” Eugene agreed.

Up ahead of them, the others finally noticed that Rapunzel and Eugene weren’t with them anymore. “Hey, Rapunzel? Did you find something?!” Anna called.

“Maybe?” Rapunzel called back, not sure if she wanted to raise her voice so loud, but not wanting Anna to yell anymore, either. But the crow was entirely unfazed, and continued to stare at her. Rapunzel glanced down at Pascal. “What do you think?” She asked him, because he was honestly better at this sort of thing than she was, even after three years of learning how to socialise. Pascal pressed his front feet together and squeaked at her chidingly, which was clear enough. “Yes, okay, asking nicely is usually a good first step.” She agreed, and swung herself off Maximus.

“Asking- Are you really going to ask the crow for directions?” Eugene asked disbelievingly.

“Why not?” Rapunzel countered as she stopped just below the branch the crow was perched on. She smiled up at him, hands tucked behind her back. “Hello.” She greeted. “I’m sorry to bother you, but we’re looking for a witch who might be able to help our friend. You wouldn’t happen to know where she lives, would you?”

“Maybe.” The crow replied. “What’s in it for me?”

There was the sound of Eugene choking on thin air behind her. “It- It talked! Did everybody hear that, because I think I might be going insane! The crow-”

The crow cackled at them again. “Every time.” It snickered.

“That is not actually the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.” Anna interjected, and the crow puffed up in what Rapunzel kind of suspected was the bird-version of a sulk.

“Okay, fair.” Eugene agreed, although he did still sound a little bit faint.

Rapunzel hummed thoughtfully, still considering the crow while it sulked. “I don’t know what you might want in return. I can’t imagine you’d have much use for money?” She wondered, but she knew she was wrong the moment the bird focused on her again with fierce intensity. It actually hopped onto a lower, closer branch to make its intrigue especially clear.

“How _much_ money?” It asked slyly.

“Um…” Rapunzel reached into her satchel and pulled out a couple of the talers she kept in a little draw-string pouch inside. “Would this do?” She asked.

“Ooh, shiny!” The crow cooed, and then jerked its head forwards to snap the coins out of Rapunzel’s hand faster than she could see. She yelped a little and stumbled backwards, but the crow hadn’t actually bitten her. “This way!” The crow called, and took off, swooping into the gloom of the woods.

Rapunzel squeaked in alarm, because the dark feathers were going to be so easy to lose in the shadows of the trees. Maximus, clever horse that he was, understood her alarm, and trotted over to her instead of making her go back. Eugene helped lift her back up, and then they were off, chasing the crow through the woods.

The path got rockier, and the trees got older and more crooked, and their branches hung lower, with trailing fingers that grabbed at hair and clothes as they passed. Moss grew thick on the stones, speckled with tiny little wildflowers and patches of mushrooms growing against the tree trunks. The crow led them into a clearing that held a quaint little cottage, a little rickety with a roof covered in grass and moss, but it was as big as Rapunzel’s rooms in the tower.

The crow swooped in the open window, cawing out a loud and grating “Visitors!” which was followed by a clatter as if it had startled someone into dropping something.

“Why you blasted bird!” A croaky old lady’s voice shouted with a heavy accent. “I don’t _want_ visitors!” She hollered, before sticking her head out of the window. She certainly _looked_ like the witches in Rapunzel’s books, all large hooked nose and wrinkled skin and wild white hair. “So you lot can just clear off! You hear me?!”

Rapunzel looked over at Anna and Kristoff, the latter of whom looked back helplessly. Anna, though, got a very determined expression on her face as she swung down off Sven’s back and walked up to the cottage. “Look, we don’t want to take up much of your time. We just need to know if our… _friend_ is still under an enchantment or not.”

“I don’t do enchantments.” The witch snapped. Anna opened her mouth, but the witch pre-empted her. “Or curses, or spells, or hexes, or geasa, or even pesky little jinxes. No! Go away!” Then she slammed the window shut.

“Well, _that_ was a waste of a journey.” Hans remarked acerbically into the ensuing silence.

“You shut up!” Anna snapped back, pointing dramatically at him. “I still think you’re cursed, and I’m not leaving until we get some proof one way or the other.” She declared, before marching over to the door and knocking on it loudly. And then knocking again. And then dropping her forehead onto the wood when she still got no answer. “Please?” She called plaintively. “We can pay you! Or- if there’s something else you need, we could help?”

There was a soft growl from behind them, and every hair on the nape of Rapunzel’s neck stood on end. She turned slowly to see that one of the lumps she’d passed off as a large rock was _moving_. Because it was a bear. A _massive_ bear, her panic insisted, while the tiny rational part of her brain checked the measurements and assured her that it was about normal for a bear, if, okay, a little bit on the big side. Maximus was the only horse that didn’t rear, throw its rider, and bolt. While Hans and Axel were picking themselves up, Maximus planted himself squarely and lowered his head like a bull about to charge.

The bear ignored them completely, and instead ambled right past them without a second glance, heading straight for the cottage, and Anna. Kristoff shouted her name, even as he was trying to calm Sven enough to be able to do anything. “Um… hello?” Anna said, in a tone of false bravado that quivered despite all her best efforts. And then, because she was insanely reckless even when she was scared, she reached out a hand like she was going to pet the bear. The bear whuffed at her, entirely unaggressive, and nosed at her hand. Anna laughed.

Rapunzel started to relax, and watched with a dizzy sense of relief as the bear nudged Anna out of the way, butted the door open, and… made a sound that was very, very clearly a reprimand. “Oh, don’t you get involved, you great over-grown lump!” The witch yelled back. “It’s none of your business! They’re not even from DunBroch, so I don’t see why you care!” The bear growled, and Rapunzel was really, really grateful for Eugene’s arms around her.

“Oh, fine!” The witch capitulated gracelessly. “But you’d better get out of the way so that they can come in! And they’d better be able to pay me! I’m not a charity, you know! It’s not easy making a living as a witch these days!” The bear gave an entirely satisfied sort of grumble, and backed out of the doorway with a surprising amount of grace for a creature that big. Anna was the first through, apparently entirely recovered from her moment of terror.

Rapunzel glanced back at Eugene, who just shrugged at her, looking overwhelmed and resigned to it, and then dismounted. Gathering her wits, Rapunzel followed, letting him help her down. Kristoff, of course, followed Anna right away, even if he did edge around the bear more than walk past it, and Axel ushered Hans ahead of him with his expression set into determined lines. There was really nothing for it but to go on in and see what would come next. So, holding tight to Eugene’s hand, that’s exactly what Rapunzel did.


	9. Chapter 8

The witch’s cottage was surprisingly cosy, in Anna’s opinion. It was a bit cluttered, full of lots of bear-themed knick-knacks on every available flat surface, but there were comfortable chairs and a blazing fire in the hearth, which was nice, because DunBroch was damp and chilly even in the summer. The helpful crow was perched on the mantelpiece, looking smug, and the witch was pottering about in the little kitchen area, grumbling under her breath about interfering wee besoms. Whatever that was.

The others trickled in one by one, all of them looking nervous. Which was just silly, because the bear was clearly not going to attack. It had even helped them. Anna decided to just let it go, because now that they were here, she was actually feeling very impatient. The witch was right there, Hans was right there, and she could finally get some answers, instead of all these doubts that had been plaguing her for the week it had taken them to get here.

“So!” Anna exclaimed, grabbing Hans by the shoulders and hauling him into the middle of cottage to present him to the witch. “This is Hans. A bunch of trolls froze his heart and made him kind of really evil. Is he still? Because he says he’s not, but I think he’s lying. I mean, he lied to me before, only, you know, not, it turns out- Anyway! The point is, I don’t trust him. Is there still magic on him?”

The witch hobbled forwards at an alarmingly fast pace, and peered up at Hans. She came up to about his waist, so it shouldn’t have looked as intimidating as it did. Hans actually leaned backwards to get away from her, which made Anna choke on a giggle. Then the witch rounded on her and it wasn’t quite so funny anymore, just vaguely alarming. “And why should I tell you, dearie?” She prompted.

“Oh!” Anna exclaimed, and reached into her pocket to pull out a pouch full of coins. “Um… how much do you, uh, charge, for magical diagnoses?” She paused. “Oh, and do you take Arendelle krone? Because that’s all I have right now.”

The witch rolled her eyes like that was the biggest inconvenience she’d ever encountered. “Oh, I suppose it’ll do.” She grouched. “But I’m not happy about this, and I’m only agreeing under duress! You hear me?!” She hollered that last back towards the doorway, and got a bearish snort in response. The witch grumbled under her breath for a moment, before fixing a very intent stare on Anna. “Now, how much do you _have_?” She asked slyly.

“ _Don’t_ answer that.” Hans interrupted sharply. Anna looked at him in outrage, only to find him glaring at the witch with the sort of look in his eye that put the memory of a chill in Anna’s bones. “I still think this is all a waste of time, but I’ll be damned if I let her _overcharge you_ for a waste of time.”

Well, that was… surprisingly nice of him, Anna thought. Only, of course, it _wasn’t_ because apparently Hans had actually been nice all along and maybe he really wasn’t still cursed anymore. Anna nearly groaned aloud in frustration, but she bit it back and instead just gritted her teeth and looked away from Hans. It was wearing on her, this constant uncertainty. Hans took her frustrated silence as permission, and set about haggling with the witch.

Anna glanced at the others to gauge their reactions. Rapunzel and Kristoff both looked hopeful, although Kristoff looked more tentative and worried, while Rapunzel offered Anna a bright, optimistic smile and a thumbs up. But Eugene didn’t even notice her scrutiny, because he was watching Hans with narrowed eyes and one eyebrow arched sceptically, shoulder braced against the mantelpiece and arms folded over his chest. Axel was, honestly, unreadable to Anna, as he watched the proceedings with a level stare.

“Done!” The witch cackled, and Anna looked back at them, tuning back in. Hans gave her a prompting look, and then faltered when he realised she hadn’t been listening. His expression twitched, and then twisted into something sympathetic. Or maybe pitying. One or the other. He repeated the final price, and Anna forked over the money.

The witch actually had the gall to bite at one of the coins, like she thought they might be fake. “Oh, his heart’s still frozen, love.” She said, off-hand as she bustled off to put her new-found fortune somewhere. “Nasty piece of work that, I could do better. If you didn’t want to feel anything anymore, I could just turn you into a bear, you know.”

“I knew it!” Anna burst out, validated and furious. She balled her hands into fists as she turned to glare at Hans, and he backed away from her hastily, hands slightly raised like he thought that might placate her. It wouldn’t, _didn’t_ , but the chaos from everyone else distracted her long enough that the moment passed, much to her regret.

“What?” Kristoff and Rapunzel exclaimed in unison.

“A bear? Really? Wait…” Eugene muttered, eyeing the doorway suspiciously.

“Oh, come on. You’re just going to take her word for it? Just like that?” Hans demanded, looking wounded. “How could she tell?”

“It’s not hard.” The witch informed him, popping up at Hans’ elbow out of nowhere and making him jump. “You reek of sky magic. Old stuff. Very powerful. So does she, actually.” She pointed a crooked, accusing finger at Rapunzel, who leaned back into Eugene, eyes wide and confused. “You can have that as a freebie, no extra payment necessary. You didn’t happen to get touched by a falling star did you?” She asked curiously.

“Uh… I used to have magic hair?” Rapunzel offered.

“It glowed when she sang.” Eugene added.

The witch blinked at them rapidly. “Well that’s just… strange.” The witch decided. “And not what I’ve been paid for, so it’s not my problem.” She added, flapping a hand in the air. Rapunzel and Eugene exchanged a baffled look.

Anna did kind of want to ask about that, but she wanted answers about Hans _more_. “Look, is there anything you can do to fix him?” She begged, unashamed.

The witch paused, and gave her a look that was more serious than Anna had been expecting. Of course, she also looked pitying, which didn’t really boost Anna’s confidence any. “Sky magic is a bit beyond me, dearie.” She said gently. “It’s a bit beyond any mere mortal.”

“I thought you were immortal?” Kristoff asked, scowling in suspicion.

“Eh, I’m mortal where it counts.” The witch dismissed. “Just because I can trick time into forgetting me doesn’t mean death can’t find me if I’m not careful. I’m still just as human as any of the rest of you. A little more human than some of you, even.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Anna wondered, screwing her face up in confusion. The witch shrugged, and Anna gaped incredulously, before miming throttling the air. Kristoff huffed a small laugh and stepped up beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder. It drained all the frustration right out of her, and Anna sighed, shoulders slumping. “So…” She began, bringing the conversation back onto the actual topic. “So there’s nothing we can do?”

The realisation that that might be true hit her harder than she’d expected it to. She’d still been having trouble separating the Hans she’d met at the banquet from the one who’d claimed it was all a lie, but the idea that she might have _lost_ that Hans entirely hit her like a punch right to the solar plexus.

“Well…” The witch hedged. “These sort of things usually have a catch.” She admitted finally.

Hope stole Anna’s breath, and she couldn’t get it back in time to speak, so it was Kristoff who asked “Like what?”

“Oh, sometimes there’s magic words, or sometimes you have to complete a task, or sometimes you just have to want it badly enough.” The witch rattled off carelessly. “Love’s usually a safe bet. Magical panacea, really, it’ll return just about anything to its natural state. But of course, you have to _mean_ it, and that bit’s the hard bit.”

“This is ridiculous.” Axel sighed. “It’s not as if several people who love him haven’t already gone out of their way to try and help him, and it hasn’t fixed anything.”

The witch favoured him with a flat, deadpan stare that was enough to make Axel shift uncomfortably where he stood. “Oh, please.” She finally scoffed at him. “You think any love clouded with that much resentment could fix a hiccuping jinx, never mind _sky magic_? No, no.” She shook her head, and stared belligerently into the face of Axel’s offended outrage.

“Resentment?” Axel echoed. “I do not-”

“Don’t lie to an old witch, sonny, it never works, and only annoys them.” The witch chided him, wagging a finger in his face. Or, well, _at_ his face, somewhere in the vicinity of his chest, which was as high as she could reach. Axel looked so indignant that Anna had to bite her lip not to snicker. She cast a wary, curious glance over at Hans, thinking back to the way he’d spoken of his brothers at the coronation ball. He’d been fond, yes, but it _had_ been tainted by a tired sort of resentment, and old bitterness. And that hadn’t been a lie. Right now, Hans looked rather smug.

“How can you tell?” Anna asked, echoing Hans’ question from before. He looked over at her, eyebrow arched, and then back at the witch, perhaps interested in the answer himself.

“Please. I might not be a diviner by trade, but I dabble, and it’s plain as day with anyone with the will to see it. Younger brother, maybe… youngest?” She asked, and Hans nodded slowly. “Mm. Coddled by your parents, I’d wager, and you-” She pointed at Axel again. “-weren’t. I bet you were the ‘responsible’ one, weren’t you? Rankles, doesn’t it?”

Axel looked away sharply, and the witch snorted with derisive humour. “That does not mean I don’t love him.” He said firmly.

“Well, no.” The witch agreed. “But it does mean you don’t know his heart well enough to heal much of anything.” She informed him, reaching out and patting his arm in a consoling gesture that was more than a little patronising. “Besides, with something like this, you might need a little bit extra kick to really get it to work anyway.”

“What do you mean?” Anna pressed.

“When you’ve got a spell that _stops_ you from feeling love, it makes it kind of hard to break the spell _with_ love. It’s got a natural resistance.” The witch explained with patient condescension. “It can still work, of course, but it does take a bit more _oomph_ to really get through.” The witch made a violent gesture in the air, vigorous enough that she actually bounced on the spot.

Anna thought about that, and then thought back over the whole conversation, putting the pieces of everything the witch had said together. “So, right, Hans heart is frozen with sky magic, and there’s probably, maybe, something we can do to fix it, and it’s probably going to come down to true love, but we’re going to need to launch it at him with a magical catapult or something?”

The witch snorted her way into a cackle, and nodded. “Sounds about right to me, dearie.”

Anna took a breath, drawing herself up with determination, but before she could begin to improvise her way through a plan of action, Kristoff jumped in. “Wait, what exactly _is_ sky magic? I mean, I get that it’s old and powerful or whatever, and… presumably has something to do with the sky, but…” He shrugged helplessly and gave the witch an expectant look.

The witch did not look impressed. Kristoff blinked back at her deadpan stare, and Anna looked between them awkwardly. “What have those trolls been teaching you, boy?” The witch demanded, sending a jolt through nearly everyone in the room.

“Trolls?” Eugene asked, confused.

“I was raised by them.” Kristoff informed him absently. “But how did you-?”

“ _Witch_.” The witch snapped, like it should have been obvious. “And, really, I _dabble_ , I’m not qualified to explain primordial cosmic power to a bunch of-” She trailed off into mutterings in such a heavy accent that Anna didn’t have a clue what she was saying, except that it was probably rude.

“Primordial cosmic power?” Hans prompted, mildly curious. Anna looked at him sharply, warily, and wasn’t reassured. Even though his voice was entirely inoffensive, there was a fierce glint in his eyes as he watched the witch pace and grumble. Anna was going to say something, she wasn’t sure what, but it was going to be mean, and she was going to regret it later when they finally got Hans back to how he should be, but before she could, the witch started ranting.

“Yes!” The witch exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air. “Pure celestial energy condensed into material form. Sometimes it’s like rain with lightning trapped inside, sometimes it’s a shard of crystal with a heartbeat, sometimes it’s a ribbon of smoke, and sometimes it’s curtains of light dancing in the sky!”

“Wow.” Hans said, just deadpan enough that Anna couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. The witch clearly couldn’t either, because she paused in her pacing to glower at him.

“Oh, sure, mock the batty old witch!” She finally scathed, deciding he had been being sarcastic. Hans just arched an eyebrow. “They’re _primordial forces_ , sonny. Life and death. Order and chaos. Light and dark. Fire and ice. Truth and secrets.”

“Love and hate?” Hans mocked.

The witch went very still for a moment, and then she smiled, showing off scraggly teeth. “Oh, no, those are pure human. Nothing primordial about those. Why do you think love’s the only thing that can break an unbreakable curse?” When Hans looked deeply sceptical about that, the witch just rolled her eyes and turned away. “It’s called sky magic because it comes from the sky. Love doesn’t come from the sky, it comes from _people_.”

“Idiot.” The crow chimed in.

Hans’ expression darkened with fury, so Anna leapt into the conversation before he could try to kill the first person who’d actually been half way helpful explaining the situation. “So, if love by itself won’t be enough, _is_ there anything that can work against sky magic?” Anna asked.

“Other sky magic.” The witch said at once.

“Where can we find some?” Anna asked.

Rapunzel sighed. “It’s too bad my hair isn’t magic anymore, then maybe I could have done something, if it really was from this… sky magic thing.” She said wistfully.

The witch eyed her sceptically. “What sort of sky magic makes _glowing hair_?” She wondered in disbelief. “That’s so… frivolous. I’m not saying you’re not touched by _some_ kind of sky magic, dearie, because you are, but are you sure it’s connected to the hair thing?”

Rapunzel blushed. “Well, it didn’t just glow. It had healing powers, I guess?”

“Oh!” The witch nodded. “Well why didn’t you just say so in the first place? You won’t have lost that gift, dearie, just because your hair doesn’t glow anymore.” She informed her, which made Rapunzel look more alarmed than Anna thought the news warranted. Really, what was it with everyone and being afraid of themselves just because they had a bit of magic?

“You did bring me back to life by crying on me.” Eugene pointed out to her gently, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

“I did, didn’t I?” Rapunzel asked, still looking a bit shocked.

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to want her to cry on me.” Hans deadpanned.

Anna rounded on him. “If it might work, I will tie you down to make you hold still for it, don’t think I won’t!” She informed him fiercely. She was seriously tempted to punch him again for, well, for every single lie since she’d kissed him, but she held herself back at the moment because she didn’t want to interrupt the conversation.

“I don’t…” Rapunzel began, looking doubtful. “I can try, if you want, but I…” She grimaced helplessly at Anna. “I don’t think I could make myself cry over him and mean it?” Which made Anna snort a little helplessly, because she could understand that much, at least.

“We can keep that in reserve in case we can’t think of anything else?” Anna offered, and Rapunzel nodded, looking relieved. Anna turned back to the witch. “Is there anywhere else we might be able to find some sky magic? Or any other kind of magic that might be able to help?”

The witch made a grumbling thoughtful noise that Anna privately thought sounded like it should have come from the bear. Then she hopped up to sit on one of the chairs, her legs so short that they didn’t even get close to touching the ground. “Well… well, where _would_ you look for something strong enough to fight sky magic…?” She mused to herself. “Oh, it’s on the tip of my tongue…” She snapped her fingers a couple of times, then stuck her tongue out and went cross-eyed trying to look at the tip.

The crow let out a mocking caw of laughter, and the witch snapped around to glare at him. “What about the stones?” The crow asked, hopping sideways along the mantelpiece and cocking his head at her. “Old stones. Old magic.”

“Ah! Yes!” The witch cried, triumphant. “There you go, dearie. Try the standing stones.”

“The… standing stones?” Anna echoed.

“Yes, that’s the ticket.” The witch confirmed. “The bear’ll show you where to go. She knows the way very well. Don’t you, lass?” She called, wickedly amused. The bear responded with a growl that sounded alarmingly threatening, but it only made the witch snicker to herself. “Well, off you go!” She insisted, flapping her hands at them to chivvy them out.

Anna went, although she felt a little hesitant. Talking to the witch felt rather like getting whacked repeatedly over the head, and it had left her more than a little dazed, and like she’d forgotten something important. On stepping over the threshold, she finally managed to pull herself together. If she’d forgotten something, they’d just have to come back again later.

She looked up, and squeaked when she realised she was face-to-face with the bear. It – she? – was staring at her with large liquid eyes, but Anna didn’t think she was imagining the spark of something intelligent behind that gaze. “Um…. Hi!” She said, offering her best friendly smile. “Thank you for guiding us, I mean, if you will. Obviously you don’t have to, but we’d appreciate it if you would.” She babbled.

The bear snorted, a rumbling sound that Anna could only imagine was meant to be laughter, and then turned to amble off into the woods, pausing on the edge of the small clearing to look back over her shoulder at Anna. “Oh! Right! Coming!” Anna exclaimed, and darted after her.

They made an odd party; six people, one horse, one reindeer, and one bear. Plus Pascal, of course. Anna stayed on foot and Kristoff walked beside her, one hand on Sven’s shoulder, while Rapunzel and Eugene were riding on Maximus again to appease the horse, since he’d refused to move out of their way until they’d climbed up. Hans and Axel were bringing up the rear, forced to walk since their horses were long gone.

“I think I’m starting to understand why you liked him.” Kristoff said suddenly, and then looked like he wished he hadn’t said anything.

Anna glanced at him, and then over her shoulder, because there was really only one ‘him’ he could be talking about. She frowned at Hans, who was arguing with his brother as they walked together, and looked back at Kristoff, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Well…” Kristoff began, hesitant and not looking at her. His eyes were very intently focused on where he was putting his feet on the uneven path “Just because he’s been frozen, I don’t think it makes him… not _him_ , you know? It just… stops him feeling anything positive. So…” He stopped and shook his head. “It was just, back there, the way he tricked the witch into explaining sky magic to us. That was kind of impressive, wasn’t it? I mean, I don’t get people on a good day, but he just… he knew _exactly_ what to say, and she just spilled it all out like it was her own idea in the first place.”

“Oh!” Anna thought back over that conversation, and then smacked herself on the forehead for not spotting it before. “Yes, that was kind of cool.” She agreed, and then reconsidered her word choice. “I mean, awesome. Or, maybe just-” Kristoff chuckled, nodding, and Anna stopped trying to find the right word. Kristoff knew what she meant, after all. “And on the ship.” Anna agreed. “He was… I don’t know, he knew what he was doing? And that was…”

“Impressive?” Kristoff offered.

“Yeah.” Anna agreed, and tried very, very hard not to think of how much she’d appreciated the sight of Hans stripped down to his shirtsleeves, hauling on ropes and climbing the rigging, while Kristoff was _right there_ , walking beside her, being sweet and kind and understanding. She swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

“I, uh-” Kristoff began, ducking his head and rubbing at the back of his neck. Anna didn’t really want to hear whatever he was going to say next, because she knew what Kristoff had to be thinking. It was what she’d been thinking the whole time, ever since Kristoff had showed up with Hans in Corona. She was going to have to _choose_ , once they fixed Hans, and… she didn’t _want_ to. And she didn’t want to hear Kristoff saying that it was okay if she chose Hans, _or_ that he was going to try and convince her to choose him. She just… didn’t want either of those things. At all. “You remember in Corona?” Kristoff asked.

Anna considered changing the subject, but then she thought of Elsa, and ice magic, and the trouble not talking about things and not being honest about things could cause. “Yeah?” She prompted quietly.

“That- I mean, I know he was lying to us, which-” Kristoff cut himself off with an annoyed growl, and Anna blinked, because that… didn’t sound anything like what she was expecting, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up that maybe they weren’t going to have to have that conversation just yet. “But that- with the- the pastries? And the glove? And he just- With his _teeth_ -! He didn’t even- I mean-” He gestured helplessly in the air, blushing and stammering awkwardly, and Anna…

Anna laughed. Her cheeks were scarlet, and her heart was beating way too fast, but she suddenly felt giddy with it, instead of sick to her stomach. Because maybe, just maybe, when this was over, she _wasn’t_ going to have to choose, after all. “I know!” She exclaimed brightly, reaching out and grabbing hold of Kristoff’s arm. “I couldn’t even look at him after that, it was _unfair_! I don’t even know _why_ it was so hot, but it _was_.” Kristoff nodded his agreement, looking genuinely perplexed, and Anna loved him so much she felt like she could fly. She hugged his arm, and when Kristoff glanced at her, knocked out of his befuddlement, she smiled up at him, a little bashful, but mostly just unbelievably hopeful and grateful beyond words. “Thank you.”

Kristoff went pink again and cleared his throat. “Yeah, well- I mean- It’s not- You don’t need- I- You’re welcome.” He finally managed. “I just… I just want you to be happy, you know?” He offered, which was where Anna had _expected_ the conversations to go, but now, she wasn’t dreading it at all. “And I know I make you happy. At least, you seem happy-”

“I am happy.” Anna assured him, making him beam bashfully at his feet.

“Good. Yes. Good. Um…” Kristoff paused to gather his wits. “I know he made you happy too, for a while, before my stupid family got in the way. So… You know. I want you to be as happy as possible, and-” He shrugged. “So, I thought, maybe… If- I mean, obviously, only if-”

“When this is all over,” Anna said, firm and sure even through her smile, “ _we_ can ask him.”

Kristoff blinked twice, and then grinned at her. “We can.”


	10. Chapter 9

“I can’t believe you.”

Hans turned to glare at Axel. “Me?” He echoed, offended.

“Did you really think lying to us was going to _work_? What on earth possessed you?” Axel snapped right back with equal offence. Hans rolled his eyes. Of course, Axel would be offended on principle if anyone ever lied to him, never mind that _he_ could obfuscate like a professional when the mood struck him.

Afterwards, Hans would never be able to remember how, exactly, they got from there to arguing about all the petty hurts of a lifetime, but it was enough to carry them all through the journey to the standing stones. Axel cut himself off mid complaint about something that happened when Hans was _five_ , and stared ahead of them with a small exclamation.

The view was not that impressive. Yes, there were a bunch of stones many times as tall as a man, all stood upright in a circle in a clearing on top of a hill. Some of them had moss decorating them, or intricate knotwork carved into them, the edges soft enough that they must be very, very old. One of them was even broken, a huge shard of it lying on the grass within the circle. It was the most useless construction Hans had ever seen.

Of course, everyone else was looking just as awed as Axel. Anna and Kristoff were staring up at the tops of the stones, their mouths agape as they wandered into the middle of the circle, and then turning slowly on the spot to take in the whole thing. Rapunzel and Eugene were lingering on the edge, but that was more because their horse was sidling nervously, and refusing even Rapunzel’s coaxing to follow the other two.

“Well, we’re here.” Hans remarked dryly. “What now?”

Anna looked over sharply, and then smiled at him. It took Hans aback, because for the last week she’d been alternating between being determinedly cheerful and stubbornly suspicious in his presence, but that smile was entirely genuine. “Well, um… try coming here?” She suggested, looking around and then pointing to a spot that was roughly at the centre of the circle.

Sighing, Hans obeyed.

Stepping into the circle felt like standing on the deck of a ship in a storm, just as it crested a wave. His gut lurched and swooped, and it was as though he could feel an approaching storm on his skin. He looked over his shoulder, staring at the stones he’d passed between, suddenly very nervous for reasons he couldn’t fully explain.

“Hans?” Anna called. Hans looked over at her, shook himself, and finished the walk to the spot she’d indicated. Then he looked at her with mocking expectation. Anna bit her lip and looked around. “Um. Please help?” She called out. “Alakazam? Open sesame?”

“Anna. Really?” Hans asked, incredulous.

Anna gave an annoyed grunt, crossing her arms and glaring around at the stones. “Maybe if you touch them?” Kristoff suggested. That sounded like a terrible idea to Hans, given how it had felt just walking past them, but of course, try talking sense to _Anna_. She brightened, and grabbed Hans before he could say no, dragging him over to the largest of the stones. It was very tall, and wider at the top than at the bottom, there was moss clinging to one side, half obscuring the already weather-worn patterns. Hans didn’t like looking at it, because those carvings seemed to move in his peripheral vision.

He tried to yank his arm out of Anna’s grip, but of course the stupid girl was ridiculously strong, and just gave him a chiding look. “Don’t be a baby, Hans, just touch the stone!” She insisted, and dragged his hand up to the stone. He tried again to pull away, and Anna pulled back, and his gloved fingertips brushed the stone.

It was like sticking his hand into a waterfall, sheer force battering against him for a moment before it receded. “Ow.” Hans complained.

“Maybe without gloves?” Anna mused. This time, Hans gave up and let her manhandle him and yank off his glove. Then she paused, inexplicably, and looked over her shoulder at Kristoff with a grin. The man beamed back, pink in the cheeks and disgustingly soppy, and Hans decided he didn’t want to know. Instead, he obligingly pressed his bare palm to the giant stone. There was a similar reaction to the first time, but nothing otherwise dramatic happened.

“Huh.” Anna grunted, drawing back to study the stones again. Hans sighed, considered asking for his glove back, and decided not to waste his breath. Instead, he moved to lean against a small spur standing in the shadow of the largest stone, It was a comfortable height to prop his forearm on and watch as Anna prodded at the stones, walked the circumference, yelled at the stones, paced back and forth between them, kicked one of the stones, hopped about whining about a bruised toe, and started brainstorming with Kristoff and Axel, while Rapunzel and Eugene sensibly remained beyond the perimeter of the stones with Maximus.

Hans gave them ten minutes, and then groaned pointedly. “Are you ready to admit this all just an epic waste of time yet?”

“No.” Anna snapped fiercely, rounding on him.

“Your opinion is rather compromised right now, and since we can’t even trust you to be honest with us, you should just… just be quiet, Hans.” Axel sighed at him.

Kristoff shook his head. “There’s magic in this place.” He assured Hans. “It’s… it’s like back home, in the troll-hop but way stronger. I think… I think if we can just figure out how to access it, this place stands a real chance of helping us fix this.”

“And how long, exactly, do you expect me to stand here while you lot fail to figure out how to ‘access the magic’?” Hans demanded.

“As long as it takes!” Anna informed him stoutly.

“Why?” Hans demanded, throwing his still-gloved hand in the air in exasperation.

Anna stormed over to him, and Hans leaned back, wary of being punched again, but she only prodded him in the chest with a finger. “Because, you giant idiot, I liked the real you, and I’m not going to leave you like this to suffer for the rest of your life.”

“Who says I’m suffering?” Hans demanded, turning his head to massage at his brow with his un-gloved hand, elbow still braced against the stone, as if that might sooth his growing headache. “I’m perfectly fine this way.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Anna rear back, looking so bewildered she almost seemed wounded. Kristoff came up behind her, frowning earnestly. “But are you happy?” He asked.

“I’d be happier if we could stop wasting time on this nonsense.” Hans replied dryly, screwing his eyes shut and grimacing. This had to be the most ridiculous conversation he’d ever had, but if it stood even a chance of getting them to drop this ridiculous quest, he’d just have to endure.

“Happier than grouchy and miserable about everything isn’t _happy_ , Hans.” Anna told him gently.

“So _what_?!” Hans burst out, suddenly furious. He turned his head to glare at her, without actually lifting it from his hand. “What does it matter to you?”

Anna reached out to lay a hand on his arm. Hans was actually surprised when raising his hand to ward her off actually made her stop, but the look on her face was disgusting, so twisted with pity that he had to look away or risk throwing up. And his stupid eyes were leaking again. “It matters.” Anna insisted softly, and Hans drew in a sharp breath, preparing to argue some more. “Nothing you say will convince me to stop.” She informed him, still gentle, but now with a thread of steel beneath that took Hans entirely aback. “I’m not giving up on you. Not _ever_.”

Hans screwed his eyes shut, bitterly hating this weakness, even as he felt the first tear slip past his lashes and off the end of his nose.

The world shook.

Someone shouted in alarm as the very earth seemed to heave under them like waves at sea. Hans kept his feet, but Anna fell against him, knocking him against the standing stone. It was burning cold to the touch, and Hans hissed in pain, staggering in an attempt to get _away_ from the bloody thing. Then Kristoff grabbed them both and hauled them towards him, away from the standing stone. He twisted into the motion, tucking Anna between himself and Hans, and keeping his own broad frame between them both and the sudden, blinding flash of blue-white light that burst across the clearing.

It was more than just light, though, it was a physical force that crashed over them like a wave, knocking them to the ground in a heap and buffeting the trees around them like a gale-force wind. Under the rushing of the light, Hans could also hear a terrible, groaning cracking reverberating low enough that it shook his bones, shook the earth itself.

And then it was over. In the sudden stillness, Hans stared at Anna and Kristoff, their faces _far_ too close, but he hardly had time to worry about that when his mind was still full of alarm at whatever had just happened. The silence within the circle of standing stones felt like a held breath, the tension ratcheting higher with every passing moment.

And then it was broken by a satisfied groan. “ _Ohh_ , at _last_!” It was a woman’s voice, but low and gravelly, nothing at all like Anna or Rapunzel, and it made Hans flinch in surprise. Kristoff whirled around, and Anna buried an elbow in Hans’ gut in her haste to also get a look at the source of the voice.

It was… Well, Hans would actually hesitate to call her a woman, because for all that she had a vaguely feminine humanoid form, she looked absolutely nothing like a human woman. She was shorter than even Anna, but not by much, and she made up for it with bulky shoulders and broad hips. Her head was too large for her body, sitting too close to her shoulders, and her waist too thin, her hips sticking out at an almost jagged angle under the soft dark green moss she wore like a dress. She wore a string of brilliant white crystals around her neck, and another looped a couple of times around her waist and hips, and upon her head, atop a tumble of hair-like greenery dotted with a multitude of small yellow flowers, was a crown made of spires of clear crystal.

She stretched her arms above her head, and as she moved, shards and flakes of stone and dust cracked and fell away from her, revealing that her skin was not the coarse grey stone of the standing stones, but a pale, smooth, and touched by a fine tracery of pale grey veins like cobwebs. “I was afraid I was _never_ going to wake up again.” She announced, lowering her hands to her crown to make sure it was settled properly before she opened her eyes and looked around.

Her gaze landed on Kristoff, on his feet again in front of Anna and Hans, who were still on the ground after that sudden explosion of magic, and she smiled, slow and just a little bit too wide. “Well, hello, dear. Aren’t you handsome?” She asked, which made Kristoff splutter and Anna ball her hands into fists and surge to her feet to stand beside her boyfriend. Hans decided it was undignified to stay on the ground, and picked himself up, straightening his jacket with sharp motions.

“Who the hell are you?!” Anna demanded fiercely.

The woman’s smile dropped away. “ _That_ is no way to address a _Queen_ , little girl.” Hans grimaced at the confirmation of what he’d been starting to suspect. He recalled the images that the leader of Kristoff’s trolls had conjured, and matched the silhouette he’d conjured of their missing queen to this woman, and wasn’t surprised to find that it fitted perfectly.

“Well, _that’s_ no way to address a Princess.” Anna retorted.

The Troll Queen propped her hands on her hips and gave Anna a magnificently arch look of disdain. “A human princess of some tiny clusters of buildings and the peasants who live in them, no doubt.” She remarked, ignoring the rising fury flushing Anna’s neck and face red. “What do I care if I offend someone so tiny when I rule the very stone of the mountains and the chill in the wind?”

Anna drew in a deep, indignant breath, and Hans and Kristoff both leapt to intercede before she could say something that might get them into even more trouble. Kristoff clapped a hand over her mouth, which was nicer but slightly less effective than Hans’ chosen method, which was to poke her sharply in the side, so that all her breath left her in a startled yelp, instead of whatever insult she was planning to throw. “You don’t care, obviously.” Kristoff said into the silence, which provoked a muffled growl out of Anna.

The Troll Queen looked smug as she offered Kristoff a gracious nod of agreement. “Handsome _and_ smart. Which of my subjects took you from the humans? I’ll be sure to offer them a reward for choosing their changeling so well.”

“Uh, it- Wait, changeling?” Kristoff echoed, baffled.

A frown pulled at the Troll Queen’s brow. “Yes, dear. A human raised among trolls, or vice versa. Don’t try to deny it. I am the mother of all trolls; I can tell when our magic has touched a human.”

“Oh.” Kristoff said, and then shook his head. “I wanted to ask, uh, Your Majesty, what- Why- How are you here?” He stammered. Hans thought that was actually a very good question, and he would have asked it himself, except he didn’t think he wanted to draw the Troll Queen’s attention to himself, especially not after she’d admitted to being able to detect magic. So he stayed where he was, mostly hidden behind Kristoff and Anna, and just listened.

“Ah, yes. That.” The Troll Queen said, distaste clear in every word she bit out. “Well, I don’t know exactly what that infernal girl did, but when she _stole my consort_ and pulled my magic out of his heart, she pulled it right out of _me_ as well.” She growled and actually stomped her foot, like a child throwing a tantrum, except when she did it, the ground actually shivered. “I went looking for the next most powerful source of magic I could sense, in the moments I had before I lost my animate form, and found myself here.” She looked around at the standing stones with a sneer. “The stingy bastards wouldn’t share, so I had no way to keep myself alive save to conserve what little life I had left in me, and allow my body to petrify. I knew if I just waited long enough, one of my people would find me and restore me.” Her temper faded as fast as it had come, and she smiled beatifically at Kristoff. “And you did, sweet boy.”

Anna made an outraged sound, and shoved Kristoff’s hand away from her mouth. “We didn’t come here for _you_!” She snapped, paused for breath, and Hans jabbed her again before she could say anything else. “ _Ow_!” Anna yelped, turning to glare at Hans, which was almost as bad as if she’d actually mentioned him by name.

“Oh?” The Troll Queen asked dangerously. Her gaze zeroed in on Hans and fixed upon him, fierce and unwavering. He could feel lit like a physical weight pressing down on him, and he had to muster all of the stubborn, vicious pride within him just to remain upright. “Oh, perhaps you don’t think you did, but it was _my_ power that drew you here, was it not?” She dropped the words into the air like stones into a lake, like each one was an attack.

Anna and Kristoff both glanced back at Hans, but he didn’t dare take his eyes off the Troll Queen to meet their stares. “I guess?” Anna hedged, looking cautiously back at the Troll Queen herself. “Wait, of course, it’s your mirror thing that’s frozen his heart, isn’t it?” She gasped in sudden understanding. “Could you get it out of him?”

Hans did not like the smile that spread across the Troll Queen’s face, not one little bit. “But of course.” She purred, and stepped forwards. Hans stepped back before his pride could hold him still, but he needn’t have worried, because Kristoff had also stepped forwards and put up a hand to halt the Troll Queen, who looked so shocked by that impertinence that she hadn’t managed to find words before Kristoff found his.

“How?” Kristoff demanded.

“How?!” The Troll Queen echoed, incensed.

“Yes.” Kristoff confirmed simply, ignoring her outrage and answering her as if she was simply looking for clarification. “How are you going to get the ice out of his heart?”

“It is _my_ ice.” The Troll Queen informed him, as if they might somehow have missed that little fact. “I will call to it, and it will return to me, its _rightful_ wielder! Now, get out of my way, impudent changeling!” She demanded, putting one hand on Kristoff’s shoulder to shove him aside.

Kristoff went flying, hitting the ground several feet away and skidding across the dirt with a grunt of pain. “Hey!” Anna shouted, throwing herself forwards and shoving the Troll Queen back. She staggered back, and then backhanded the startled Anna with a roar of fury. Anna flew further than Kristoff had, and when she landed, she didn’t move or make a sound, just tumbled to a stop in a heap and lay still.

“Anna!” Kristoff shouted, scrambling up in his desperation to reach her.

Which left Hans alone as the Troll Queen stormed towards him. He cursed the fact that no one had trusted him with a sword since the trolls had confirmed that his heart had been frozen, and backed away as if that might do anything more than delay the inevitable. But then Axel was there, standing between them with his own sword drawn. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to phase the Troll Queen in the slightest, and when Axel swung at her neck, he saw why.

The blade was designed to hew flesh, not stone, and when it met the Troll Queen’s marble skin, there was an awful, grating screech as it slipped across the surface instead of cutting into it. She laughed, low and mocking, and snatched at the sword, wrapping impervious fingers around sharp metal and squeezing until it shattered. Axel reared back in alarm, and was promptly batted aside just like the others, leaving Hans once more in her direct line of sight.

He backed up further as she advanced on him, but before he could go more than a handful of steps, his calves hit something and he toppled backwards, landing hard on his back on unyielding stone. The broken piece of one of the standing stones, he recalled as he fought for breath. The Troll Queen appeared over him, and when he tried to roll out of the way of her descending hand, the other came up to grab his shoulder and yank him back into place.

“Hold still, mortal.” The Troll Queen growled impatiently.

“No!” Hans spat, incredulous defiance dragging the word out of him even as he continued to struggle. He managed to get enough leverage against the arm on his shoulder with his own to knock it aside and managed to sit half way up before she was dragging him back down again. A knee to her side did nothing except give Hans a bruised knee, and then her other hand landed flat on his chest, and something inside him _moved_.

He had a fraction of a second to be alarmed before the pain hit. It was agony like nothing he’d ever felt before, like something inside his chest was clawing at his ribcage, and his back arched as he screamed as much from the terror as the pain. He scrabbled mindlessly at marble arms, trying to dislodge the source of his pain, but he might as well have been trying to move one of the standing stones all by his lonesome.

Distantly, past the roaring of his blood in his ears, he heard another roar, and then the scream of a battle-charger, and then, miraculously, the pain stopped. He slumped back onto the stone, breaths rattling wetly in his throat as he gasped for air in the wake of the sudden relief. He turned his head, needing to see what was going on and if that horrid creature was coming back.

She wasn’t. Mainly because she couldn’t get around Maximus, Eugene and Rapunzel astride him still, without the horse rearing and lashing out with steel-shod hooves with all the power of the massive animal behind them. She had already been kicked once, Hans guessed, since she had a protective hand pressed against the opposite shoulder like it was hurting her. _Good_ , Hans thought viciously.

“Hans?!” Someone shouted from close by, and the next thing Hans knew, his entire field of vision was obscured by Kristoff’s worried face. “Hans, are you okay? What did she-”

“Fine.” Hans gritted out, even though he honestly had no idea if it was true. He gave Kristoff a dubious look, because he couldn’t work out what the man was playing at, why he was _here_ when he ought to be more worried about his girlfriend. “Where’s Anna?” He asked, trying to convince his suddenly trembling muscles to work so that he could sit up.

Kristoff huffed a relieved little laugh. “She’s fine, just bumped her head a little when she fell.” He explained, and then reached out to curl an arm under Hans’ shoulders and help him up. Hans opened his mouth to point out that wasn’t what he’d asked when the lingering ache in his redoubled as he moved. He gasped and curled in on himself. It was nothing compared to the pain from before, but it still hurt more than Hans had expected. “Hans!” Kristoff shouted again, and Hans wanted to snap at him to shut up, but he didn’t have the breath.

“Here, maybe I can help?” A breathless voice offered, and then Rapunzel appeared at Hans’ other side, kneeling on the stone slab with a wobbly but hopeful smile. “Just- just lie still for a moment, okay?” She asked, and Hans snorted, because clearly he wasn’t going to be moving again any time soon. Rapunzel gave a slightly wild laugh, too, and nodded acceptingly. “Okay, okay.” She murmured, more to herself, and then took a deep breath and started to sing. “ _Flower, gleam and glow._ ” Somewhere beyond her, the Troll Queen let out a furious howl of denial. “ _Let your power shine. Make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt, change the fate’s design…_ ” Here, she leaned forwards and screwed up her face, forcing a tear to spill off her lashes and drop onto Hans’ chin. Then she sat back and wiped at her eyes. “Did… did that help?” She asked in a small voice.

Hans stared at her for a long moment, but then he tried to sit up again. This time, there was no pain, and he stared down at his own torso in surprise. “It did.” He said, bewildered. Healing tears. That was just ridiculous.

“Oh, good.” Rapunzel sighed. “I would have felt kind of silly if it hadn’t.” She admitted sheepishly, and Hans gave her a look, because honestly, if it was him in her place, he’d be feeling pretty silly either way. Not that he would have cried over a stranger in the first place, but his point still stood. Rapunzel didn’t notice his expression, though, because in that moment her gaze slipped past Hans and her eyes widened in alarm. “Eugene!” She shouted, at the same moment that Maximus let out a scream of pain, and Eugene let out a startled cry. Rapunzel scrambled away to the sound of two thuds, bodies hitting the ground, if Hans had to guess.

Hans didn’t need more prompting than that. He lurched to his feet, ignoring Kristoff’s unnecessary attempts to help him. “Time to go?” He asked, trying for a tone of casual dismissal, even as he started running for the edge of the circle of standing stones. Kristoff snorted, hard on Hans’ heels. They were met just beyond the standing stones by Anna, who was… sitting astride the bear. When they appeared, she leaned down and held out a hand.

“Get up, quickly!” She called, eyes on Hans.

Well, he wasn’t going to turn down a convenient mode of escape, even if he was bewildered by the effort they were both going to, to ensure his safety. He’d just grabbed hold of her hand when Kristoff staggered and fell against him, knocking him into the bear’s side.

“Kristoff! Hans!” Anna shouted in desperation as marble fingers snatched at Hans’ hair. He threw himself to the side, out of the Troll Queen’s clutches, ignoring Kristoff as he slumped to the ground without Hans to lean on anymore. He spun on his heel to try and keep the Troll Queen in sight, and was just in time to see the bear round on her with a roar that was loud enough to rattle Hans’ teeth in his skull.

One massive paw swung up and around and smashed into the Troll Queen before she could even begin to think about dodging. It made her stagger right into the standing stone behind her with a shout of shock or pain. Hans skittered a few more steps away, just in case she was going to ignore the bear in favour of coming after him again, but she didn’t move. Instead she just looked down at the four shallow scratches the bear had left on her arm. Unlike stone, it seemed that trolls could bleed. The scratches were oozing a fine trickle of purple ichor onto her skin, and she seemed stunned by it.

She didn’t have long to contemplate her own mortality, however. The bear wasn’t done with her yet, and it reared, sending Anna sliding off its back with a yell, only to bring both forepaws down towards the Troll Queen. She dove out of the way, and the bear rebounded off the standing stone, using its momentum to drive itself around to face the Troll Queen with another bone-rattling roar. Anna, meanwhile, staggered upright and rushed over to kneel over Kristoff alongside the reindeer, who was crooning in obvious concern. Kristoff groaned when she touched him, which did at least confirm that he was still alive.

“How dare you defy me?!” The Troll Queen howled, somewhere between panicked and enraged as she tried to stay out of the bear’s reach. “I am Queen of all the stone of the earth! You are a mere beast! You should all be cowering before me!” She made a gesture that Hans recognised from Queen Elsa, those rare few times he’d seen her use her powers intentionally, and he stiffened, bracing himself, but nothing happened. The Troll Queen snarled in impotent fury, and dodged another swipe of the bear’s paws.

The bear snarled right back, and lunged, jaw snapping. The Troll Queen scrambled backwards, fumbling for the edge of the standing stone and ducking behind it once she found it. The bear skidded to a halt and growled, bristling and ready but no longer attacking. The Troll Queen blinked twice, and then threw back her head and laughed, ignoring the bear’s enraged growling. “You daren’t step into the circle, do you, beast?” She crowed in between her laughter. “Too afraid of what so much magic might do to you! Too scared to embrace the power!”

The bear gave a derisive snort.

“You’re right.” The Troll Queen agreed wickedly. “It _isn’t_ for the likes of you.” Then she lunged out from between the stones, ducked under the bear’s swipe, and Hans only realised what was happening scant seconds before she barrelled right into him. He fought as best he could against something that he couldn’t hit, but after a brief struggle, the Troll Queen picked him up and hurled him back into the stone circle. He hit the ground hard, his head ricocheting off the hard-packed dirt hard enough to nearly knock him unconscious and send his brain spinning into a dizzying muddle of thoughts.

He fought for coherence, but before he managed much more than a clumsy attempt to right himself that only resulted in making him nauseous alongside his dizziness, the Troll Queen had gotten back past the bear and grabbed him roughly by the hair. He yelled as she began to drag him across the ground, but she only shook him once, making the world loop and whirl around him so violently that he would have _rather_ just blacked out.

Then he did. Or, at least, that’s what he’d thought had happened, up until he realised he was still aware, so the blackness, and the sensation of falling – of being _pulled_ – must be external, not internal. Just as he was coming to that conclusion, the world spun back into being. Except everything was different. They were no longer on a hill in the middle of a forest in DunBroch. They were in a rocky stone valley, mountains looming close around them on all sides. Hans realised through the haze of his probable concussion, that he _recognised_ this clearing, and that it meant that his chances of getting out of this alive had just dropped dramatically.

Someone gasped. “Your Majesty!”

Yeah, Hans was so screwed.


	11. Chapter 10

Kristoff came to with a start, and it took him a moment to work out what had woken him. He felt fine, really, and there were no loud noises, just sniffling. Blinking his eyes open, Kristoff realised that the sniffling was Anna, whose face was blotchy red from crying. When she saw him looking at her, she sobbed again, and threw herself at him. Kristoff looked to the other crying woman leaning over him, and Rapunzel just smiled at him sadly.

“What happened?” Kristoff asked her, bewildered.

“The Troll Queen hit you over the head.” Rapunzel explained with a wince. Kristoff thought about how even swords hadn’t scratched her skin, and what he knew of climbers who’d fallen and hit their heads on rocks, how rarely they _survived_ , and paled. “Don’t worry, I healed you!” Rapunzel assured him hastily. “But Anna was worried.”

“I’m okay.” Kristoff assured Anna, stroking a hand over her back.

“I know.” Anna sniffled petulantly.

Kristoff sat up, which incidentally had the happy side-effect of setting Anna upright as well, and looked around. Sven was hovering nearby, looking worried, so Kristoff reached out and scratched under his chin absently to reassure him as he took in everyone else. Axel was sitting on the fallen slab of stone, hands white-knuckled around the hilt of his broken sword, and Eugene was leaning against one of the standing stones, a deeply unhappy frown on his face. Maximus was hovering nearby, looking like a puppy that had just chewed up one half of all their owner’s shoes and knew they were going to be in so much trouble, while their bear guide was pacing the perimeter of the stones, a constant low-level growl rumbling through them like an approaching thunderstorm.

Kristoff scanned the area again, and felt his stomach sink. “Where’s Hans?” He asked hollowly.

Anna flinched, expression screwing up as she looked away. “She took him.” She admitted quietly enough that Kristoff almost couldn’t hear her. “The Troll Queen… She got him back into the circle, and just… pulled him _through_ one of the stones, and they vanished.”

“Vanished?” Kristoff echoed.

Anna nodded. “She just walked right through it like it wasn’t even there, and she took Hans with her, and it was like the stone had just… swallowed them up! Poof! Gone!” She exclaimed in desperate frustration, gesturing wildly with her hands.

“We tried to go after them.” Eugene interjected, voice sombre. “But whatever she did to the stone, I guess we can’t replicate it, because it felt just like solid stone to me.”

“And there’s no way to tell where they went.” Axel added hollowly, glowering at the grass. “I wish I understood magic better, there has to be _some_ logic to it, but… they walked _into a stone_. Logic would suggest they were inside the stone, and maybe they are, but maybe they’re somewhere else entirely!” He gestured violently with one hand, and then slumped, dropping his forehead into his palm, elbow propped on his knee, the very picture of defeat.

Kristoff stared at him, feeling sick. It didn’t make any sense to be so affected by the loss – _potential_ loss – of a man he’d kind of hated up until recently, but he was. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told Anna he was beginning to see why she liked him. In between his moments of general awfulness, he’d sometimes catch flashes of what he suspected was Hans’ real personality. Still manipulative, still cunning, but also strangely harmless. Polite, maybe, was a better word, and cautious. Dedicated, even if some of the things he’d dedicated himself to weren’t that nice.

And there was potential there. It was the loss of that, maybe, more than Hans himself, that really hurt. If they had succeeded in their quest to thaw his heart, they could have made something worthwhile between the three of them. And Kristoff was feeling unmoored enough, after his family’s betrayal, that the loss of something like that hurt a great deal more than maybe it should.

Restlessness caught in his bones, and he found he needed to move. He started to haul himself up, and when Anna saw what he was doing, she bounced up and yanked him the rest of the way with only minor effort. “Kristoff?” She asked once they were both upright, looking at him with a desperate sort of hope, like she was trying to will him to have a plan through hope alone, but he didn’t. He shook his head in dismissal and started to pace.

“There has to be something we can do.” He said, because he refused to believe they were _helpless_. “There has to be some way to figure out where they went, at least?” He suggested. “Maybe the witch could tell us? Or… do you know?” He asked turning to the bear.

She shook her head, more like a dog shaking off water than a human gesture, but it conveyed the message well enough. “We don’t have the time to run back and fetch the witch.” Anna reminded him, also pacing and knotting her fingers together as she did so. “For all we know that- that _awful_ troll could be torturing him _right now_.” She blurted out, and then went pale as her own words registered. “Oh god, Kristoff, what are we gonna do?”

Kristoff immediately walked over to her and pulled her into a hug, hiding his face in her hair as he tried to think of an answer that wasn’t ‘I don’t know’. He swallowed hard, and then set his jaw. “We keep trying.” He decided, releasing Anna to turn towards the standing stone. “Did you say it was this one they went through?” He asked, pointing.

“Yeah.” Anna confirmed, sniffling a little before drawing herself up to her full height and following Kristoff to the stone. He stared at it for a long moment, looking for anything that might be a trigger mechanism or something, but nothing stood out. Perhaps the patterns had something to do with it, so he reached out to run his hands over them, looking to see if any part of it felt different.

The moment his skin brushed stone, however, he jerked back again, because that had felt like trying to catch a lightning bolt with his bare hands, or maybe trying to walk through an aurora. Energy given form pulsing past his fragile mortal skin in a dizzying rush. “Kristoff?” Anna asked urgently.

“It felt like normal stone, did you say?” Kristoff asked, looking over his shoulder at Eugene, who straightened from his slouch abruptly, eager interested filling him – and everyone else – with new energy and vigour.

“Yeah. Why? What does it feel like to you?” Eugene pressed.

“Like… like there’s a really, really powerful magical current running right below the surface that might swallow me up if I’m not careful.” Kristoff offered with a grimace, because that was a poor description at best, but he couldn’t think how else to phrase it in a way that would make sense to anyone who couldn’t feel that incredible power.

“Didn’t the Troll Queen say something about you being a changeling?” Anna burst out, looking vaguely apologetic when Kristoff winced at the word. “Sorry, but maybe that’s what we need to… to open the portal or whatever? Troll magic.”

The others clustered around, making Kristoff feel very self-conscious, but he nodded hesitantly anyway. “Maybe.” He hedged, and reached out to run his hands over the stone. It was hard to maintain contact, because the stone felt less like solid rock with power in, and more like a delicate membrane; the skin of the world itself acting as the only barrier between Kristoff and that riptide of power flowing just beneath the surface.

And that was where the Troll Queen had taken Hans. Into that fierce, wild power, and it had probably dragged them somewhere. Somewhere that Kristoff could probably get to as well, if only he could figure out how to get through. He pressed harder against the stone, both palms flat against it and all his weight leaning into it, but even though the surface under his hand felt so terribly, dangerously fragile, it didn’t give way.

Frustration boiled up in him like acid, and he shoved against the stone. The desperate urge to go after Hans hadn’t left him, itching at his bones like insects in his blood, and that there might be a way so very close to his fingertips, but inaccessible, nearly choked him. He needed to find Hans, to make sure the Troll Queen didn’t hurt him, because it was their fault that she woke in the first place, and now Hans was going to pay for it. He had a more selfish reason, too, because he really wanted a chance to get to know the real Hans, the man that Anna had been so besotted with, the one he thought he had caught a few glimpses of over the last several weeks.

Something shifted, the world slid just a little sideways, and Kristoff’s hand and arm were sucked into the well of power beneath. He almost fell in, the sucking, drowning pull almost dragging him all the way in before he reared back and wrenched himself away. “Whoa…!” He breathed, staring in alarm at the perfectly innocuous-looking stone.

“You did it!” Anna cried, throwing her arms around him. Kristoff caught her with one arm, but couldn’t quite tear his gaze away from the standing stone. “Kristoff, you did it! Okay, let’s go!”

Kristoff finally looked down at her, and then over his shoulder at the others, who were all looking so relieved and eager, and grimaced. “I don’t think I can take everyone.” He said, hating the way their faces fell. “It’s like… it’s like a river, and I barely know if I’ll be able to steer _myself_.” He looked around at the five people, a reindeer, a horse, and a bear all clustered around him.

“You’re _not_ leaving me behind!” Anna snapped, stepping back to prop her fists on her hips, all bristling bravado and badly masked desperation. Sven chimed in with his own indignant moo, and Anna nodded. “Exactly!” She agreed, like she had any idea what Sven had been trying to say. Maybe she did; she’d spend enough time around him by now to pick up on some of his tells.

“We’ll head back to Corona, and see if we can’t make any sense out of all this.” Rapunzel decided, linking her arm through Eugene’s and trying for a reassuring smile. “Maybe see if there isn’t some way to stop the Troll Queen, in case you guys don’t manage to stop her before you escape.”

Kristoff was kind of relieved that she hadn’t questioned their ability to rescue Hans, even while offering to find a back-up for them anyway. Anna and Rapunzel exchanged a brief flurry of assurances that they’d stay in touch and report back about any successes, and then all eyes turned to Axel. His face could have been carved from stone for all Kristoff could read from him, which was a terrible comparison, and he banished it from his mind immediately.

“I think…” Axel began stiffly. “I am unlikely to be of any use to you, or my brother, so it would be best if I were to accompany Princess Rapunzel back to Corona.”

“But he’s your brother!” Anna protested.

Axel’s mouth twisted into an expression that was trying and failing to be a smile. “Yes, but these last weeks have made it very clear to me that that does not guarantee understanding, or any significant degree of care. Of course I would rather accompany you, but logically, based on all I’ve seen so far, the two of you stand a much greater chance of saving my brother than I, or any of our other brothers, do. And in this instance, I would only be an extra burden on your journey.”

“But-” Anna began.

Kristoff silenced her with a hand on her arm, and she looked at him with wounded betrayal. He knew how she felt about siblings, of course, but just because she had a heart big enough to adore her sister even after years of neglecting their bond, that didn’t mean everyone did. “We’ll do our best.” He swore, because it was all he could offer. Axel managed a real smile that time, even if it was pained, as he inclined his head and stepped back. Kristoff looked down at Anna, only to find her looking desperately torn. “It’s fine.” He assured her with a small, indulgent roll of his eyes.

Anna stuck her tongue out at him, making him huff in laughter as they turned back to face the standing stone again. “Okay, let’s do this.” Anna declared fiercely, bouncing on the spot as she psyched herself up, looping her arms around his and holding on tightly. Kristoff nodded, then he glanced over at Sven and lifted his other arm. The reindeer immediately plastered himself to Kristoff’s side, and he wrapped his arm over Sven’s back, grabbing a solid handful of the thick fur over his shoulders.

He reached up with his free hand, glad when Anna’s response was only to tighten her grip on him, and pressed his palm to the stone. This time, it gave more easily under his touch, and when the whirling, sucking not-void pulled at him, he didn’t resist. The all-encompassing blackness and awful falling sensation that met them were disturbing, but as they… moved, if they were really moving, or perhaps something was just moving past them, Kristoff began to spot shapes, shadows looming in the deeper darkness.

Then, abruptly, one of the shadows caught his eye. It was almost circular, which was odd, because most of the shadows had been far less uniform in shape, and while this one wasn’t perfect, it was still distinctly round, instead of lumpen. It also felt… _familiar_ , and without thinking about it, Kristoff raised his hand and grabbed for it as it rushed by.

His fingers caught in something less than solid, but thicker than liquid, and he felt it drag around his fingers in the second before the force of this not-void reversed its pull and spat them back out into the physical world. The feel of stone under his boots was so unexpected that Kristoff staggered, and all three of them went down in a heap, right in the middle of the troll-hop in Arendelle.

“Kristoff!”

After a moment of struggling, Kristoff and Anna managed to disentangle themselves from Sven’s antlers and staggered upright under the silent scrutiny of the trolls. The only movement or sound, Kristoff realised, was coming from Petra and Hajara as they shoved their way through the crowd to reach their adopted son. “Petra, Hajara.” Kristoff greeted, perhaps not as warmly as he used to, because instead of immediately getting up in his space and fussing over him like they usually would, they came to a stop just beyond the closest ring of observers.

“What happened?” Petra demanded, all aggressive fretting.

Kristoff opened his mouth, and realised he had no idea how to even begin to explain everything that had happened since he’d seen them last. Anna saved him, stepping forwards and stooping a little to speak to the trolls. “Did the Troll Queen and Hans come through here?”

Petra and Hajara exchanged long looks. “They did.” Hajara confirmed finally, her voice as sombre as the frown on her face. “Her Majesty was… not happy.”

“With you?” Kristoff wondered, baffled.

“With us, for not looking for her. With Girish, for using her magic without her leave. With the boy, for not relinquishing her magic to her. With the Queen, for possessing the greater part of her powers. With you, for attempting to prevent her reclaiming her powers. And with a bear, for some reason.” Petra rattled off the list in her usual unstoppable way, only pausing at the end to share a baffled look with Hajara.

“She knows about Elsa?” Anna demanded, straightening to her full height in her alarm.

Petra nodded. “Girish told her his theories, and why he didn’t push us to search for longer.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Anna protested, shaking her head. “It couldn’t have just been that you thought she had the Troll Queen’s powers, because that would have only made you look harder, right? Unless…” She trailed off, uncertain, but Kristoff could follow her train of thought, and he was getting a sinking suspicion that she was right. “You thought Elsa _was_ the Troll Queen.” Anna concluded. “Or whatever was left of her.”

Hajara nodded slowly. Kristoff stepped forward to join Anna, something nebulous crawling up the back of his throat. “It wasn’t just about me, was it?” He asked, and his voice came out angry, even though he didn’t know how he felt about it. “Freezing Hans heart wasn’t about making me happy, or whatever, it was _politics_ , wasn’t it?”

“That’s probably why Girish went through with it.” Hajara agreed.

Kristoff opened his mouth, then caught himself and shook his head. “No, no, that’s not important right now. All of this is just… We can talk about this later. Where did the Troll Queen take Hans?”

Petra and Hajara looked at each other again. “Kristoff…” Petra began, placating.

“No, don’t ‘Kristoff’ me! Where did they go?!” Kristoff demanded.

“We can’t tell you.” Hajara informed him bluntly. “You would set yourself against _our Queen_ with this, and we cannot allow that. Both as trolls, and as your parents, Kristoff. Just let this go.” She insisted, almost pleaded, but it only made Kristoff more angry.

Apparently, it wasn’t what Anna wanted to hear, either. “Let it go?!” She yelped, furious. “Your Queen is about to _torture_ a guy because _you_ messed about with her magic! How can you just sit back and let that happen?! If you hadn’t interfered, none of this would be happening to Hans, but you can just sit back and pretend it’s not _your fault_ because your Queen is picking on him instead of you?!”

Several of the trolls cringed away from her anger and accusation, but none of them moved to actually answer their question. “He could be dying, _right now_ , for no real reason, and you’re going to let that happen because your Queen said so?” Kristoff added his own demand to Anna’s, but still, no one seemed inclined to help them. Kristoff ground his teeth, and decided that they might do better arguing with a different authority figure, instead of a crowd. “Where’s Girish?”

“With Her Majesty.” Hajara replied.

“Oh, of course he is.” Anna threw her arms in the air, and then turned to Kristoff with helplessness written all over her face. “Can you think of anywhere she might go? Are there any… any sacred places for your people around here?”

“Just the troll-hop. Here.” Kristoff gestured around them. “The next troll-hop is all the way over the mountains, but I guess they might have gone there? To spread the news? But then why take Hans, why not just-” He stopped himself abruptly, unable to utter the words.

“They went to the Ice Palace.”

“Shan! Hush!”

“No!” A small troll, young enough that their crystals were still green, and hadn’t settled one way or the other yet, pushed their way to the front of the crowd, batting aside the chiding hands that tried to grab and restrain them. “Kristoff’s right!”

“You would go against your Queen for a _changeling_?” Shan’s father – Halvar, Kristoff remembered vaguely – demanded, pushing Petra out of the way to loom over Shan.

“She’s no queen of ours!” Another young troll – Lana, Kristoff recognised – protested, darting out of the throng to stand beside Shan. “I’ve known Kristoff all my life, and he’s always been good and kind, but the ‘Queen’, whatever her name really is, just waltzed in here and _assumed_ I’d follow her, even though we’ve lived all our lives just fine without her? No thank you!”

“Thanks, Lana.” Kristoff said, touched by this minor show of support.

Lana looked over their shoulder at him, and grinned. “Don’t worry about it, just go and save your new boyfriend!”

Kristoff flushed, and began to splutter, but Anna cut him off by catching hold of his arm. “Elsa’s Ice Palace.” She reminded him, looking a little wild-eyed with the need to go, and quickly. “Come on, we’ve wasted enough time.” Kristoff nodded, abruptly reminded of the urgency of their mission, and hurried over to Sven, Anna hot on his heels.

Once they were settled on Sven’s back, he wasted no time in leaping forwards, charging towards the North Mountain. “I wonder why there?” Kristoff murmured.

“Well, it was built with ‘her’ powers.” Anna replied, lifting her hands from Sven’s ruff to sketch the quote-marks in the air. “Maybe she could sense it. Maybe she thinks she’ll be able to reabsorb her powers easier when surrounded by them, or something.”

“Maybe.” Kristoff agreed, stomach churning just at the thought.

Anna patted his hand, drawing his gaze from the path ahead down to her face, which was tilted back so that she could look at him. “We’ll save him, Kristoff.” She swore, and Kristoff nodded, grateful for and awed by the strength of her determination all over again.

They had to go the long way around, because scaling a two-hundred foot cliff would probably take more time than just going around. It still made Kristoff twitchy, knowing that they were actually heading _away_ from Hans for some of the journey, as they navigated around the steep crags and peaks. The temperature dropped, and below Sven’s hooves, the grass turned to stone which turned to snow. Kristoff knew that was a sign that they were getting close, and it made him encourage Sven to run faster, urgency pounding through him in time with his heartbeat.

“I see their trail!” Anna shouted back to him, pointing, and sure enough, Kristoff spotted the swathe Girish’s squat form would have carved through the snow, and the steady footsteps of the Troll Queen next to the less orderly path Hans must have made. The fact that Hans had been so clearly unsteady on his feet only made Kristoff’s worry double in strength.

“Hurry, Sven.” Kristoff instructed, and Sven obeyed, pushing himself even harder, despite the fact that he was already running full-tilt along the mountain path. He didn’t even slow as they came to the treacherous ledge that circled the peak of the North Mountain, just bolted around it, sending snow flying out over the gorge, and skidded to a halt in front of the crystalline ice staircase that led up to Elsa’s Palace. Kristof swung down off his back in the same moment, and didn’t pause for more than a grateful, reassuring pat to Sven’s neck before he was bolting up the stairs, Anna hot on his heels.

The front doors were hanging carelessly open, cracked in places where – Kristoff guessed – the Troll Queen had hit them to open them, and they’d rebounded off the walls inside. They slid to a stop inside, because the foyer was entirely abandoned, and Kristoff wasn’t entirely sure which way to go. Elsa was a skilled architect, frankly, and the Palace was huge. If they had to search the entire thing for Hans, they were going to be too late, and any time they might have made up by riding here on Sven instead of walking, like the Troll Queen probably had to, would be lost.

Anna didn’t have the same doubts as him, though. She marched straight for the staircase and darted up it to the landing that overlooked the foyer. Kristoff followed her, trusting her lead, but once she was there, she paused, looking between the two staircases that branched off to wind deeper into the palace like she couldn’t figure out which way to go.

Just as Kristoff was about to suggest the left staircase on nothing more than a whim, the screaming started.


	12. Chapter 11

Heart in her throat, Anna bolted up the left hand staircase, following the sound of Hans’ screaming. Urgency stole every other thought from her mind, and made every instance where she had to pause at the top of some stairs, or at a turn in the corridor to double-check that she was going in the right direction nigh on unbearable. It felt like an eternity that she ran through the palace, but realistically she was sure it couldn’t have been more than a handful of seconds, and then she was spilling into a beautifully grand room lined with pillars and archways of perfectly transparent ice, like a cathedral. The ceiling was just as transparent, and Anna could see the sky above stained red with the sunset.

But all of that was inconsequential. Anna’s entire focus was taken by the shape of the Troll Queen in the middle of the perfectly smooth floor, kneeling over Hans as he writhed and screamed and tried to shove the Troll Queen away. “No!” Anna shouted, and lunged.

The Troll Queen didn’t even look up, and a figure Anna hadn’t noticed in her preoccupation with Hans hurled a ball of shimmering light at her. Anna ducked, stumbling as she lost her footing on the too-smooth floor, and scrambled upright again. It was enough of a delay that Girish had managed to put himself between her and the Troll Queen.

“Girish!” Kristoff shouted from behind her. “Stop this!”

“I am no traitor to my Queen.” Girish replied solemnly, his brows pulled into a heavy frown of regret. Anna was not in a mood to be forgiving, though, not with Hans’ screams still echoing off the icy walls. She dove forwards again, only to have to throw herself to one side to avoid the next spell Girish fired at her. “I don’t want to hurt you, either of you.” He offered.

“Then don’t!” Anna snapped at him, out of patience as she twisted and scrambled back to her feet, just in time to see Kristoff charge in. Girish hesitated, spell hovering in the air above his hand, and it was just long enough for Kristoff to dive on him. The spell went wild, careening into the ceiling and making the ice bloom momentarily with the colours of the aurora.

“Anna! Go!” Kristoff shouted, pinning the much smaller troll to the floor with his bulk.

Anna didn’t need telling twice. She lunged for the Troll Queen, and she didn’t waste her time trying to hurt her, she just wrapped both of her arms around the one the Troll Queen was holding over Hans’ chest. There was a red stain blooming on Hans’ white jacket under her hand, and Anna didn’t hesitate to wrench that arm backwards with all of her strength.

The Troll Queen let out a startled shout as her balance was thrown, but Anna didn’t let up. She just braced her own shoulder against the Troll Queen’s back and yanked even harder. There was a grating, cracking crunch, and the Troll Queen howled just as Anna’s feet slipped on the ice and went out from under her. She landed hard on her back, and the Troll Queen’s considerable weight toppled on top of her, driving all the breath from her lungs, even as the momentum of their fall threw the Troll Queen off her and tumbling onto the ice.

“H-Hans?” Anna wheezed, rolling onto her side and peering over at the man. He didn’t appear to hear her, but he was at least conscious enough to curl onto his side, arms crossed over his chest to protect the wound. His breathing was ragged, clogged with pain, but he wasn’t screaming anymore, so Anna would count that as a positive. “Hans.” She called again, but got no response.

“Look out!” Kristoff shouted.

Anna turned her head, but before she could do more than register the looming presence of the Troll Queen, there was a hand in her hair dragging her upright. She yelled at the pain in her scalp, hands flying to the Troll Queen’s wrist in an attempt to take some of her weight off her hair. Then she was eye-to-eye with the awful creature, and met her glare with one of her own, even if her eyes were stinging with tears. “You are becoming troublesome, little girl.” The Troll Queen snarled.

“Good!” Anna shot back, and spat in her face.

The Troll Queen flinched, and then roared in wordless offence as she flung Anna aside. She crashed into one of the pillars, and her entire side bloomed with pain as she dropped to the floor. She tried to stand, but moving made her vision flash white with the sudden onslaught of pain, and she had to settle for simply lifting her head to watch as she tried to catch her breath.

Kristoff had thrown himself at the Troll Queen, leaving Girish abandoned on the floor like a flipped turtle, and planted himself between her and Hans, as stubborn as a mule. “ _Traitor_.” The Troll Queen hissed. “Ungrateful orphan, how _dare_ you! I am your Queen!”

“My queen is Queen Elsa of Arendelle, and I wouldn’t let _her_ do this, either.” Kristoff swore. “Leaders are only as good as their decisions, and you’re barely a person, never mind worthy of being a Queen! _Sven_ would do a better job ruling a country than you would.”

The Troll Queen lunged for him, one arm outstretched. The other, Anna was pleased to note, was hanging limply at her side, a dead weight. Kristoff ducked under her grab, jabbed his shoulder into her stomach, and tossed her into the air with all his strength. She didn’t fly far, being as heavy as if she truly were made of stone, but she landed on her back and had to struggle to regain her feet.

Anna tried again to lift herself, more carefully this time, since it seemed Kristoff had things in hand for the time being, and it almost worked. Her side was still agonising, but if she was careful, she could still move. So she did, half crawling and half dragging herself across the floor to check on Hans, who still hadn’t shifted from his foetal curl in the middle of the hall. He was alive, Anna reminded herself firmly, and he was going to be fine.

She reached him, and laid a hand on his shoulder. Hans didn’t so much as flinch, and panic threatened to overwhelm Anna. She fumbled to check his pulse, and made a sound that was caught somewhere between a laugh and a sob when she found it, reedy and weak, but undeniably there. “Hans?” She called softly, not wanting to draw the Troll Queen’s attention if she could avoid it.

“Back away, Princess.”

Anna looked up at Girish with a scowl. “Make me.” She challenged, and only after the words had left her did she realise that it probably wasn’t the best idea to bait a troll sorcerer when she was already having trouble moving, let alone defending herself.

Girish sighed heavily, looking so terribly sad even as he conjured up another spell, wisps and glimmers of white and pink and green light whirling to life in his palm. “You are far too much like your mother. She was too stubborn for her own good, too.”

“My mother bested the whole damn lot of you.” Anna spat back.

Girish nodded. “Her Majesty told me of what occurred just before she vanished. Humans are something remarkably unique, with such capacity for love within them, your mother especially so.” Anna smiled, hard and proud, but Girish just shook his head. “And her spell tore the heart out of us. I would do a great deal to right that wrong.”

Anna fought for words through the indignation that was clogging her throat, and failed. In the end, she settled for blowing a raspberry to communicate just what she thought of that bullshit. Girish reared back a little, startled, and Anna took the opportunity to swing her legs around, pivoting with her hip on the ice, to kick him like she was playing ball like she had as a young girl, alone in the palace halls. It hurt like hell, like she kind of expected kicking a boulder would hurt, but it had enough force to send Girish tumbling into the wall. The sound of the ice cracking under the impact was loud and sharp in Anna’s ears, and she winced, glancing over her shoulder just in time to see the Troll Queen spot her.

With a bellow like a wounded bull, the Troll Queen wrenched herself out of the hold Kristoff had on her bad arm, uncaring of the pain it must be causing her. Kristoff lunged after her, grabbing a fistful of her hair and yanking. She whirled on him, catching him full in the chest with a stone fist. Kristoff went flying, and the Troll Queen resumed her advance. Anna knew she was worse than useless right now, but she still flung an arm out as if that might help shield Hans at all.

“I’m going to snap your fragile little neck, just like I should have with the _last_ interfering human girl who _dared_ to defy me!” The Troll Queen snarled as she loomed over Anna.

One moment, Anna was frantically trying to think of what she could do that might stand a chance of stopping the mad creature, and then next, there was a clatter of hooves on ice, and a set of antlers caught the Troll Queen in the torso. Sven grunted as he heaved and twisted, hurling the Troll Queen across the room. More ice cracked, spreading spiderwebs of white through the perfectly transparent floor, and Sven planted himself firmly in front of Anna with an angry snort.

Anna laughed in pure relief. “Thanks, Sven.”

Kristoff staggered over to drape an arm over Sven’s back in a pseudo-hug. “Yeah, thanks, buddy.” He wheezed, his other hand pressed to his chest. Sven made a whuffling sound, and then a determined grunt, glancing over his shoulder at Anna and Hans. It wasn’t that hard to figure out what he was trying to say, and honestly Anna thought it was a good idea. Sven had the bulk and the weapons to hold the Troll Queen off where they just didn’t, and if they could get Hans out of here, they didn’t have to actually defeat the Troll Queen, just delay her. “You sure?” Kristoff asked, low and wary under the sounds of the Troll Queen ranting about lowly animals and how dare they. Anna thought it was probably safe to ignore her, it wasn’t like she was saying anything _new_. Sven nodded with another grunt, and then stepped out from under Kristoff’s arm to square off against the Troll Queen.

“Kristoff!” Anna called when he dithered.

Reluctantly, Kristoff tore himself away from watching the Troll Queen try to get past Sven’s antlers and generally fail, and skidded to his knees beside Anna. “Hans!” Kristoff said, tone urgent, but also relieved, and Anna’s heart skipped a beat as she whipped around to find Hans awake and staring up at the pair of them like he couldn’t comprehend what he was seeing.

“Anna?” He rasped out, eyes flicking from her face to Kristoff’s, and back again. “Kristoff? What-?” He began, but was cut off by a coughing fit that shook his whole body. He rolled half way onto his face as he fought for breath against the coughing, and Anna couldn’t help the sound of dismay that escaped her when little flecks of red splattered across the ice.

“Hey, hey, easy there. Don’t try to talk.” Kristoff fussed, reaching out and getting an arm under Hans’ shoulders to support him.

“That’s right.” Anna added. “We’re going to get you out of here, and then you’ll have all the time you need to recover, okay?” She looked to Kristoff. “Can you carry him?”

Kristoff nodded, and as Hans’ coughing started to subside, he began gently manoeuvring him into a princess carry. Anna set her jaw and forced herself to ignore the way her side started screaming with pain as she shoved herself up onto her knees, and from there to her feet. “Are you okay?” Kristoff asked her.

“I’ll make it.” Anna replied with the best smile she could manage at the moment.

Hans chose that moment to catch up to what was happening and object. “Put- put me down, I can walk-” Kristoff opened his mouth, then visibly decided not to argue, and simply allowed Hans to use him as a crutch. But once he was on his feet, Hans didn’t make any move towards the door, instead, he went back to staring at them in abject bewilderment. “I- You… What are you doing here?” He asked, frowning.

Anna shared a look with Kristoff, who rolled his eyes so dramatically that Anna had to bite back a giggle, and then a gasp of pain when the laughter shook her injured ribs. “We came to rescue you, of course.” She said, voice tight with pain. “So let’s do that, and get out here, okay?” She added, nudging the two men into a shuffle towards the door. A glance over her shoulder assured her that Sven was still successfully harrying the Troll Queen.

Hans’ frown only deepened. “By yourselves?”

“Well, I wasn’t sure how many I could carry through that portal thing.” Kristoff explained awkwardly. “And it was better that a few of us get here to rescue you than none of us because we weren’t careful, right?” He checked, glancing down at Hans with a wry smile.

“I don’t- understand.” Hans stated, voice rattling alarmingly.

“Shh, we can figure it all out later.” Anna fretted as they finally reached the door. “Let’s just focus on getting you out of here right now, okay?” She put an encouraging hand on Hans’ elbow, because she could do that much, even if she couldn’t help support him like she wanted to.

“No, I- _Why_ would you-?”

There was a howl of rage behind them, and Kristoff picked up the pace a little, even though it made Hans stumble a little. Kristoff’s arm around his waist kept him upright and moving, and that was good enough. Anna fell in behind them, looking over her shoulder as the Troll Queen flung herself after them, managing to slip around Sven, only to have his teeth close on the moss-like material of her dress, causing her to jerk, slip, and fall flat on her face.

Snorting with laughter, Anna staggered after Kristoff and Hans, one arm curled around her aching side, the other against the wall to support herself. It was slow going, and Anna kept looking over her shoulder, waiting for the moment when the Troll Queen would catch up, but it appeared Sven was doing a good job keeping her distracted. “But-” Hans began as they were navigating the stairs. “You two don’t make any sense.” He bemoaned.

“Why not?” Kristoff replied distractedly, most of his attention on not slipping on the stairs.

“There’s no reason for you to risk your lives for- for what? Guilt?” Hans pressed, but what just a few hours ago would have sounded scathing now sounded desperate. Anna wondered if Hans knew the answer, but just didn’t want to admit it.

Well, she wasn’t going to stand for that. “For love.” She told him firmly.

Hans twisted to look over his shoulder at her incredulously, letting Kristoff take almost all of his weight as he gave up trying to navigate the stairs by himself. “For… that’s… You can’t- You can’t _love_ me, that’s…”

“Of course we can.” Anna assured him.

“It’s not that unbelievable.” Kristoff added evenly, despite the blush that was spilling across the back of his neck and his ears all the way to his face. Hans whipped around to stare at _him_ , and nearly triggered another coughing fit. While he was struggling to keep his breathing even, Kristoff winced apologetically, and said; “Maybe this should wait until we’re-”

An almighty crash of shattering ice echoed through the palace behind them, drowning out the rest of Kristoff’s sentence. Anna stared behind them anxiously, worrying about Sven for several long, breathless moments as the sound faded to the tinkling of shards falling, and then even that died away. But then Sven limped around the corner, one leg obviously injured and trailing blood behind him as he slipped and staggered down the stairs.

“Sven!” Anna and Kristoff cried together, relief palpable, and they resumed their shuffle down the stairs and back into the foyer.

Hans breath was still rattling worryingly, but once they cleared the stairs, he managed to get his feet under him and carry some of his own weight, even if he staggered and stumbled more than once. Very, very quietly, with a raspy, rattly edge that Anna really didn’t like, he asked; “ _We_?”

Kristoff made a sound that honestly Anna would have been less surprised to hear from _Sven_ , a low moan of abject mortification. “Can we- talk about this later? I mean, this is really not the best place, and-” He paused, and then sighed, giving in. “I don’t know? I think so. Maybe. It’s not like I’ve really had a chance to get to know the _real_ you, who isn’t a complete jerk, but… even with your jerk-ness, you’re… I think I could. And I’d like to find out.”

“Why?” Hans pressed, and the word broke half way through.

Kristoff actually stopped walking, caught entirely off-guard by that question. He looked back at Anna, and she knew she wasn’t the only one whose heart was aching at the painful honesty of that question. It was awful that Hans really couldn’t comprehend what it was to care about someone. To _want_ to care about someone. “Because… because I want to see you happy. And- and I think it’d be… really nice if we could be the reason why you’re happy.” Kristoff said finally.

Hans drew in a sharp breath that caught in his throat, broke there, and tore its way back out as a strangled yell as Hans collapsed. Kristoff went down with him with his own shout of alarm, and Anna lurched forwards and fell to her knees on Hans’ other side, gasping when the sudden movement jolted her side and made the pain flare up again. Hans had his free hand pressed to his chest, and he was curling in on himself, expression contorted with agony and tears streaming down his face.

Something red began to seep out from between Hans’ fingers, and for a moment Anna thought it was blood, and horror flooded her. Then she realised it wasn’t liquid, but light, bloody red and then poison green and icy white-blue, the colours shifting and weaving in and out of each other, touched with just a hint of rosy pink and grassy yellow.

Anna lifted her eyes to Kristoff, and found him staring back, the exactly same mixture of disbelief and terror and hope in his eyes that was filling her to the brim. They both returned their attention to Hans when he started coughing again; hard, wracking coughs that audibly grated in his throat. Anna fitted herself to his side to help support him, despite the fact that she was hardly in any fit state to be supporting anyone else. Hans barely seemed to notice, one hand still curled protectively over his chest, even as he nearly doubled over with the force of his coughs.

The light was growing brighter, reaching out tendrils like curtains into the room, waving and weaving in the air like an aurora. Where they brushed against Anna’s skin, they felt like lightning contained in the softest of silks, and despite her worry and confusion, she couldn’t help but feel a touch of awe, too. It was beautiful, if also terrifying.

A sudden shout of triumph from behind them made Anna turn. Pain blotted out her vision for several urgent seconds, but it cleared just in time for her to see the door behind Elsa’s pretty frozen fountain burst open, only to shatter as it crashed against the walls, bringing chunks of wall down with them as they broke. The Troll Queen stood amongst the destruction, looking distinctly worse for wear, but enraged enough that she hardly seemed to notice.

“Anna, can you…?” Kristoff asked, but he was already shifting Hans’ weight onto Anna, so instead of hedging like she wanted to, she just nodded, gritted her teeth, and breathed through the renewed pain as she took Hans’ weight. Kristoff scrambled up to join Sven in forming a defensive line between Hans and the Troll Queen, which left Anna with the problem of how to get Hans moving when he could barely breathe around his coughing.

One attempt to haul him upright showed her just how impossible that would be. She barely got them half way up, before a renewed spate of coughs had Hans convulsing hard enough to throw Anna off-balance. Her knees hit the floor with a painful jolt, and she whimpered in frustration. And then, suddenly, the lights in the air vanished, drawn back in to the tiny grain of ice that had just flown from Hans’ lips. It gleamed and winked with inner light as it fell, hit the ice, and bounced. Then it winked out of existence mid-bounce, the light flickering and dying in an instant.

Behind them, there was a scream of denial and rage, and Anna flinched. She chanced a glance over her shoulder and saw that Kristoff had the Troll Queen in some sort of hold that kept her from advancing, but even as she watched, she twisted and threw him off. Sven darted in, harrying her with his antlers, and Anna decided that getting out was a higher priority than watching and worrying.

“Come on, Hans.” Anna ground out, but Hans was very nearly a dead weight in her arms, eyes half closed and entirely unfocused. “Oh, for-” Anna huffed, and then, staggered upright and hauled him on towards the door, more dragging him than carrying him. She managed to get him to the door, but then she looked at just how long the stairs were, and nearly cried in frustration. “Kristoff! Help!” She called.

Instead of Kristoff, though, it was Sven who joined her. He was still limping, his leg still bleeding sluggishly, but he didn’t give Anna a chance to hesitate before shoving his way between her and Hans and letting them both slump against his sides. Hans groaned quietly and started to shift, so Anna gave up trying to think of a better plan, and just hauled on his shoulders until he was draped over Sven’s back like a sack of grains. “Down the stairs as fast as you can, Sven.” Anna instructed, and the loyal reindeer set off, cautious on the slippery ice.

“Anna?” Hans groaned.

“Yup, it’s me. Hi. Hello.” Anna rambled, awkward and distracted as she looked between the bottom of the stairs, their own location near the top, and the doorway in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Kristoff. “Are you feeling better?” She asked, not that she really doubted that, finally, his heart had thawed.

There was a long beat of silence, and then Hans swore very softly. Despite herself, Anna laughed, and then cut herself off with a whimper as her side reminded her that it was badly damaged. “Oh, ow, don’t make me laugh right now.” She complained in good humour.

“Sorry.” Hans replied, voice small, carefully sliding back off Sven and onto his own feet. They gave way under him at first, but he still had his arms over Sven, so he caught himself and regained his balance.

“It’s okay.” Anna answered flippantly, urging their little group on a bit faster.

Hans very carefully didn’t look at her. “No, I mean…”

“I know.” Anna assured him, more sincerely this time. “I know, Hans. It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.” Hans shot her a dubious, wary look, but then he looked behind them, and visibly cringed at whatever he saw, or was remembering, Anna guessed.

“She’s not going to stop following us.” Hans rasped. “Even without the ice in my heart, she’s furious enough that she’ll still want to kill us.” There wasn’t a trace of doubt in his voice, and Anna didn’t blame him, even though she wished he could be wrong. But just because she was an optimist, that didn’t make her an idiot.

“Kristoff can hold her off for a little while.” Anna stated firmly, which only earned her a tight, pained look from Hans that said he didn’t hold out much hope of that working out very well at all. Anna took pity on him. “Besides, I have a plan.” She assured him.

Hans glanced back at her, one corner of his mouth lifting in a tiredly amused little smirk. “Should I be worried?” He asked. He was _teasing her_ , Anna realised with delight.

“Probably!” She chirped, and then let out a triumphant shout when they reached the bottom. “Now, come help me find a big rock.” She ordered, tromping through the snow to root around at the base of a nearby rocky formation. Hans joined her, and after a minute they found a boulder that they could just about manage to lift together. “Back to the stairs.” She instructed, and they lugged it back. “KRISTOFF!” Anna hollered as loud as she could.

Kristoff appeared in the doorway, sporting a new bruise across his jaw, and limping just as badly as Sven, but still moving pretty fast. “Why aren’t you running?!” He demanded.

“I have a plan!” Anna assured him, and then added “Hurry!” when she saw the Troll Queen hauling herself out of the castle doors right behind Kristoff. He glanced over his shoulder, saw her, and threw caution to the wind. Instead of trying to run down the stairs with an injured leg, he just hurled himself down them on his butt, yelling the entire way.

The moment he skidded past them, driving up great drifts of snow, Anna yelled “Throw!” and did just that, Hans catching up just in time to add his own strength to the toss. The boulder did not fly far at all, but it did go far enough. It crashed into the bottom two steps of the staircase, and smashed right through them. Cracks spiderwebbed through the whole structure, and the next step up began to crumble, and then the banisters followed, and at least half of the staircase was falling away into the chasm below.

The howl of pure, thwarted rage from the other side was music to Anna’s ears.


	13. Chapter 12

They caused a bit of a ruckus when they limped back into Arendelle some time after dawn. Someone on the outskirts must have spotted them and sent word ahead, because within seconds of them reaching the city, there was a crowd gathering, worried citizens rushing forwards to offer their beloved Princess and her companions blankets and cups of water.

Hans himself was given a lot of dirty looks, and it was only Anna protectively putting an arm out between him and the mob that saved him from getting smacked with a broom by an overzealous matron. “Prince Hans has been helping us!” She called out over the crowd. “I will- I’ll make an announcement about what’s happened once I’ve spoken to my sister, I promise, but for now, please just give him a chance. He’s not going to be trying to kill me or Elsa again. Are you?” She turned to ask him, eyes glittering.

Hans blanched before he could school the reaction. He had no idea how Anna could joke about that when just the memory of it turned Hans’ stomach. The whole month, from the moment where he must have breathed in that tiny shard of ice to the moment he coughed it and half his lungs up onto the floor of the ice palace felt like a nightmare. “Of course not.” He said, pained and earnest, unable to carry the joke like he suspected Anna wanted. “I’ll… I’ll make a formal apology, if that would help.” He offered, ostensibly directing his words to her, but pitching his voice to carry, because the words were for the people more than they were for Anna.

She, inexplicable as it seemed, had already forgiven him.

“I- We can put that in with the announcement, I guess, but I really don’t think you need to.” Anna replied, clearly thrown by the suggestion, like it hadn’t even occurred to her that the people might want a show of remorse from him, instead of just taking her word for it. She really was kind of terrible at politics, and Hans could taste the derision that thought would have caused in him mere hours ago, and the memory ached like an open wound. He couldn’t understand how he could have hated the fact that Anna was too _honest_ to be good at politics, when her honesty was one of the things that made her so rare and beautiful.

He offered her a smile, tired and shaky though it was, and Anna went pink even as she grinned back, unashamedly pleased. Then the crowd recovered from the surprise of having Anna vouch for him, and moved in again, ushering them towards a couple of hastily provided chairs to wait while a runner fetched proper transportation from the castle.

“Hans, why don’t you-” Kristoff began, giving up on finishing his sentence and simply waving Hans over to the chair that had very clearly been meant for him, not Hans. But when Hans hesitated, Kristoff actually grabbed him arm and hauled him over, setting him in the chair with a roll of his eyes. “My leg’s just a bit battered, you’re the one that nearly got your heart ripped out. Sit.” He ordered, and Hans didn’t have the energy to protest.

Another chair was produced for Kristoff, and some of the children scrounged up a bunch of carrots for Sven, taking turns to feed him while he sprawled out on the cobblestones in an over-dramatic, but well-deserved, show of exhaustion. The crowd lingered, even though nothing exciting was happening, until a unit of very frantic-looking guards jogged up as an escort to the open carriage the Queen was riding in.

Queen Elsa threw herself out of the carriage before the horses pulling it had even come to a complete stop. “Anna?! Anna! What happened?! Are you alright?!” She demanded, pale and worried.

“I’m okay, Elsa.” Anna assured her, tired but happy. “Really. Well, okay, I think maybe I broke my ribs, but they’ll heal, and no one’s dead, so I think we came out pretty well this round.” She babbled defensively, and Hans didn’t know whether to smile at her chattering, or wince at the mention of the injuries she’d sustained saving his ungrateful ass.

“Hans?”

Hans looked around, startled, and saw Rune hovering nearby, tentative like he wanted to hope but didn’t dare. He winced, because he hadn’t even noticed his brother in the carriage with the Queen, or his approach, which was not a good sign. “Rune.” He replied tiredly, and then added; “I… Thank you.”

“What for?” Rune asked dumbly.

Hans gave him the look that deserved, and watched with an ache in his chest that had nothing to do with the Troll Queen’s attempts to pry it out as hope and delight bloomed in his brother’s eyes. “You were the only one that cared enough to notice that I was… that I wasn’t myself.” He reminded him quietly.

“Oh.” Rune shrugged, grinning irrepressibly. “Yeah, well. I love our family, but pretty much all of you are too quick to expect the worst of each other, you know? It’s easy, to let resentment fester when we’re all crammed in together with the eyes of the world on us, but that’s all the more reason to work at trying to understand each other, I think.”

Before, Hans would have scoffed at that, because as much as he would always go for diplomacy as the first response, growing up with twelve older brothers had taught him to always prepare for the worst. That way, he was never disappointed. Now, though, he was painfully aware of just how easy it was to think the cruel response was the right one, even when it wasn’t. For all that his heart was now thawed and his mind was clear and his previous mindset horrified him, he could still remember the exact trains of thought that had led him to those horrible, vicious conclusions.

“You’re a good person, Rune.” Hans informed him, as if it wasn’t obvious.

Rune smiled, lopsided and bashful, and shrugged one shoulder. “I try.”

“Hey, Hans?” Anna called softly, and Hans looked up to find her hovering expectantly a few steps away, Queen Elsa hovering at her side, her eyebrows scrunched up in concern. Anna tipped her head towards the carriage. “Coming?”

“Yes, sorry.” Hans replied automatically, and got to his feet. It was only Rune’s quick action that kept him there, as his head spun and he nearly passed out. “I’m fine, I’m fine.” Hans said quickly, before his brother and Anna could do more than make concerned noises. “Just woozy, it’ll pass.”

“You should see a doctor when we get back to the palace.” Anna instructed, the stern tone barely covering up her worry. “If your heart’s been… been damaged, then…”

“I will.” Hans assured her, still just a little baffled but entirely grateful for her concern.

“Okay, come on, then!” Anna insisted, and turned on her heel to march over to the carriage, only to wince as the motion upset her ribs. Queen Elsa cast a faintly perturbed look back at Hans, but then easily fitted herself against her sister’s side to help her into the carriage. Hans and Rune followed, and Kristoff was the last in, lingering on the cobbles a little longer to argue with one of the guards about Sven.

Sven himself solved the dilemma of whether he should walk back with them or wait for a vet to come see to him without aggravating his leg further by scrambling into the footwell of the carriage. It pressed his bulk up against everyone’s knees, like an extremely heavy fur blanket, and his antlers nearly clipped Hans in the face.

Then Kristoff was settling in beside Hans, and he realised that he was hemmed in on all sides. Rune against one shoulder, Kristoff against the other, and Sven trapping his legs. He felt a little claustrophobic at the suddenly tight confines, but there was also a sense of relief. Because as ridiculous as it was, he trusted all three of them, and after everything, feeling safe even for a moment wasn’t something he was willing to take for granted.

Even if he really wasn’t sure what to think about Kristoff right now. His words from the ice palace were indelibly inked into his mind; love laid out as simply as ‘ _I want to see you happy, and it’d be really nice if we could be the reason why you’re happy_ ’. Even with his heart frozen, and nothing but scorn in him for any kind of sentiment, when it was put like that, he couldn’t help but… wish that it could be that simple, that _easy_.

And to hear that from someone who had only seen him at his absolute worst, cold and cruel and deceitful, was bewildering. Anna was her own sort of confusing, because he had betrayed her personally, left her to _die_ , for something as stupid as one of the most stressful jobs he could think of. But Kristoff? He just couldn’t understand what had possessed the man to suggest…

He didn’t even know how to think it, never mind _talk_ about it or actually take them up on… whatever it was they were offering. They. Because Anna was in on it, too, and that was the part that frightened Hans as much as it intrigued him. They were definitely a couple, and yet…

Hans pressed a hand over his eyes like that might help wipe away his thoughts. He was a mess right now, all his thoughts and feelings jumbled up after the sudden thawing of his heart, and he needed time and space without scrutiny to sort himself out. Right now, he was far too conscious of the people around him, and the way everyone’s attention kept drifting to him, even though Anna and Queen Elsa were talking quietly between themselves, and Kristoff was keeping his hands busy petting Sven.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long before they reached the castle, and the royal physician came hurrying to meet them. “Your Highness!” He called, hurrying straight for Anna, who waved him off.

“No, no, see to Hans and Kristoff first. I need to talk to my sister, and then I’ll come see you.” She insisted, and the physician hesitated, glancing to Queen Elsa for confirmation. Hesitantly, she nodded once, and the man reluctantly approached Hans. “He almost got his heart ripped out, and he’s been woozy ever since.” Anna informed him, and the alarm that flashed across the physician’s face triggered a similar anxiety in Hans. “I’ll come find you later, Hans! Kristoff!” Anna called over her shoulder, towing her sister inside. Hans waved in vague acknowledgement, and let the physician show him to one of the castle’s parlours and fuss over him. The man poked and prodded his chest, which hurt, and eventually said there was probably a lot of bruising, and he should take it easy for a while.

After assuring the man that he would, Hans finally managed to retreat to a small, discreet courtyard to try and sort himself out. There was a pretty little fountain with a bench nearby under the shade of a small silver birch tree, and that’s where Hans drifted, sitting and staring sightlessly at the fine spray of mist in the air as he carefully went back over everything that had happened over the last month or so without the lens of hatred the ice in his heart had given him.

He could acknowledge that his warped perception hadn’t been _entirely_ false, just such a narrow and unhelpful perspective that he felt a little disgusted with his own thoughts. Kristoff _had_ felt guilty about what had happened to Hans, yes, but now Hans could also recognise the sheer bravery in his decision to help, not just the guilt, and he could admire that. Anna _had_ been inconsistent and aggressive, but Hans could also see how resilient she had been. It was as if the whole world had been skewed sideways, and now he was left trying to reassemble everything into some kind of order retrospectively.

Shame curdled thick in his gut as he remembered his attempt to appear like his true self. There was nothing he hated more than appearing like a fool, and now that he _knew_ the truth, it was far too easy to see how terribly flimsy that act had been. Agitated, he rose to his feet, and paced around the fountain slowly, trying to work off the belated embarrassment.

Someone cleared their throat, and Hans looked around to find Kristoff standing in the shadow of the castle wall, framed by the open doorway behind him. “Uh, hey.” He greeted awkwardly. “Mind if I…?” He gestured vaguely in Hans’ direction. “Or would you rather be alone right now?” He added, in a wry tone of voice that suggested he’d understand completely if Hans said he would.

“Honestly? No.” Hans replied on a sigh, carefully folding his arms in an attempt to hide the way his hands weren’t as steady as he wished they were. Not that he was sure that Kristoff’s company would be better. Embarrassment was sickening, but confusion wasn’t far behind on Hans’ list of least favourite emotions, and Kristoff was more than a little confusing. “But I’m probably not very good company right now.”

“I’m usually not very good company, either.” Kristoff replied with a shrug, stepping out into the sunlight and walking over to stand beside Hans, hands in his pockets. When he caught Hans looking at him with a raised eyebrow, silently challenging that statement, he snorted a soft laugh. “I’m not. I’m awkward and too blunt and kind of rude.” There were so many things Hans wanted to say to that, but none of them were very polite, so he bit his tongue and just tipped his head in acknowledgement. “What?” Kristoff pressed anyway.

Hans considered deflecting, but… Well, this man _had_ seen the worst of him, and hadn’t tried to kill him yet, so there wasn’t exactly much he had to lose. “I wouldn’t think you’d want to be courting a princess, in that case. Court life seems like it would be painful for you.”

Kristoff wrinkled his nose. “Court life is painful for _everyone_.” He countered.

Hans laughed before he could help himself. “True. And it’s not as if Anna’s very well suited to court life, either, so you’ll probably do well together.” He mused, thinking back to the coronation ball, and how terribly, endearingly awkward Anna had been. Not a single moment of poise, but she’d been a brilliantly genuine star compared to the dim formality of everyone else.

“You’re, uh… you’re not… staying, then?” Kristoff asked after a long pause.

Hans turned to look at him, curious and a little caught off guard by the genuine note of crushed hope in Kristoff’s tone. Kristoff looked back, heart in his eyes, and Hans had to look away sharply. “I don’t know.” He admitted with a rueful smile. “I still can’t quite wrap my mind around what you’re offering.”

“It’s not that complicated.” Kristoff protested, and then reconsidered. “Is it?”

Hans couldn’t help but be amused at Kristoff’s question, even as his guts twisted. “I know you implied some sort of romantic relationship that includes all three of us, but since you’re not suggesting I stay as Anna’s secret paramour, I’m not sure what you _do_ want.”

That seemed to take Kristoff completely off guard. “That’s not… Is that really the only arrangement you can think of?” He asked, face scrunching up in abject bewilderment.

“Anything else would have all three of us crucified.” Hans pointed out. “Socially, if not literally.”

“So what?” Kristoff asked without missing a beat. “The only people who get a say in this is the three of us. Everyone else can stuff it.” He announced, voice snapping with a touch of belligerent aggression. Hans stared at him with the dawning realisation that Kristoff was actually just as dangerous as Anna. It was a different kind of bravery and honesty, but it was equally awe-inspiring, and made his breath catch just a little. Kristoff noticed him staring. “What?” He asked.

Hans smiled, tipping one shoulder in a pseudo-shrug. “I just think it’s incredible, the way you two can do that. Be yourselves without any fear of what others might think.”

“It’s not that I’m not afraid.” Kristoff said with a shrug. “I hid in the woods with trolls all my life because I was afraid of the way people treated me, and Anna… well, she is kind of fearless.” He capitulated with a snort.

“She’s been alone for so long already, she’s not afraid of it anymore.” Hans pointed out wryly.

Kristoff blinked. “That… huh.”

“She doesn’t _want_ to be alone, obviously, but she’s not afraid of it because she knows she can survive it.” Hans explained, and Kristoff nodded, expression open in his understanding. “I think the only thing I’ve ever seen actually frighten Anna is betrayal.” He added, because, well, he was trying to be honest right now. He still couldn’t manage to be honest enough to say that the only time he’d ever seen Anna frightened was _of him_. Not when he’d left her to die, there had been confusion and indignation, but very little fear, but when he’d shown up in Corona and pretended to be her friend. That had scared her.

It seemed Kristoff heard it even though Hans couldn’t manage to give it voice. “ _You_ weren’t the one who betrayed her.”

Hans took a deep breath, gauged the sincerity in Kristoff’s eyes, and found not a single hint of artifice. So he nodded slowly, and tried to accept that. It wasn’t easy, because shame had its claws sunk deep into him, and it was never that easy to dislodge, but it helped. “Thank you.” He said, and then winced at himself. “Oh, god, I haven’t said that to you, yet, have I?” He realised aloud, appalled by his lack of manners, especially in light of his behaviour while he was cursed.

“Uh, it’s really not-” Kristoff began, rubbing at the back of his head sheepishly.

Hans turned to face him squarely and made sure to meet and hold his gaze. “Thank you, Kristoff, for everything you’ve done for me. You had every reason not to help me, but you did anyway, so thank you.” He said, with all the sincerity he could muster.

“It’s fine.” Kristoff squeaked, wide-eyed and turning red. Hans faltered a little, concern rising up to replace his gratitude. But then he noticed Kristoff’s eyes dropping away from his eyes to his mouth, and then back up again, blush darkening.

“Oh.” Hans breathed, entirely taken aback. For all that Kristoff had claimed an interest in him, Hans hadn’t dared to really believe it, but that… that look was hard to mistake for anything else. “You really meant it.” He realised.

Kristoff covered his face with his hands. “Yes, okay? Yes. I meant it.” He mumbled, the words muffled by his palms while the embarrassment in his tone came through loud and clear. “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t mean it.”

“But I was… The whole time you knew me, I was being _awful_.” Hans pointed out in bewilderment.

Kristoff lowered his hands, still red-faced but expression serious. “I could still see you through it.” He replied, and Hans felt his own face heating up. “Just in little bits and pieces, but… it made me want to get to know you better, if nothing else. The real you.”

It took Hans a moment to find his words, flustered as he was, but he’d always been quick-witted, so the pause wasn’t the drawn out affair it could have been. “How could I say no to that?” He asked with a slightly crooked smile. Kristoff lit up, a grin blooming across his face like a sunrise, and Hans had to swallow, recognising that he was doomed.

“So you’ll stay?” He checked, shifting closer and laying a hand on Hans’ arm, gentle and tentative.

“Yes, I’ll stay.” Hans agreed, mind already spinning off; trying to work out the best excuse to linger in Arendelle to see where this relationship might take them. He wasn’t sure that ‘ambassador’ would fly, given what had happened at the coronation, but perhaps he could spin it as some sort of diplomatic atonement, make it part of his official apology, and- And Kristoff’s hand was really very warm, even through the layers he was wearing, and he abruptly noticed just how close the other man had ended up during the course of their conversation.

There was a breathless sort of tension in the air, but Kristoff didn’t look like he meant to do anything about it. His eyes were darting uncertainly across Hans’ face, his grin tilting towards bashful, and Hans decided there was really only one thing for him to do. He leaned in, and was pleased when Kristoff leaned in to match him. He brought a hand up to Kristoff’s cheek, tilting his face up just a little to bring their mouths together, and kissed him.

It was short and sweet, and when Hans drew back a few seconds later, Kristoff chased after him and kissed him again. One hand came up to cradle the back of Hans’ neck, and he got entirely lost in the moment. He felt lighter than air, filled to the brim with the beginnings of terrifying joy, and he foolishly dared to hope that maybe the three of them could actually make this work.

A shocked squeak had them breaking apart, and Hans was already coming up with ways to smooth the moment over before he even looked over. When he did, however, he saw that it was Anna, and any idea of what to say fell out of Hans’ head. “Anna.” He greeted, well aware that he was blushing again, even as he offered her a tentative smile.

“Hi. Hello. Um, yes. Please don’t stop on my account.” She offered brightly, also blushing. “I was just… surprised! But happy! Very happy, because this means you said yes, right? To us?” She checked, practically vibrating with pent up energy.

Hans nodded, while Kristoff laughed. “Yes.” Hans confirmed. Anna gave a delighted squeal and flung herself at him. Hans just barely managed to brace himself in time to catch her, and then she was kissing him, too, and it was worlds different even while it was exactly the same. Hans decided not to analyse it too hard, and just enjoy it.

“Excellent! Fantastic! This is perfect!” Anna declared as she released him. Then her eyes widened. “No, no, wait!” She exclaimed, and then rounded on Kristoff to kiss him, too. “ _Now_ it’s perfect.” She announced firmly, before throwing one arm around each of them and squeezing them tightly. Hans wrapped an arm around her in turn, but didn’t squeeze, remembering too clearly how she’d been moving so gingerly before.

“Did you see the doctor?” He asked her before he could forget.

Anna looked at him with an odd softness in her eyes, but before he could even start to frown, she rolled them at him and huffed. “Yes, I did.” She confirmed. “He wrapped me up in bandages to support my ribs and told me not to jostle them too much. Did _you_ see the doctor?” She retorted, looking between the two of them.

“Yes.” Hans confirmed. “I’m just a bit bruised.”

“Sprained knee and a lot of bruises.” Kristoff reported when Anna turned to him. “Gotta take it easy for a while, but I’ll be fine.”

“Good.” Anna sighed in relief. “Oh, yes, and we’ve got a lot of letters to write.” She added. “I’ve got to write to Rapunzel to let her know what happened and that everyone’s okay, and I think I’m going to write to that witch as well, just so she knows she doesn’t need to worry. And we ought to write to your family, too, Hans.”

“I need to work out what to tell them about this, first.” Hans sighed, thinking of the reactions that news would get, and cringing. “They’re going to mock me for eternity. Lars is going to be insufferable, and Karl has _no_ mercy, and Mother’s going to start planning the wedding, and-” Hans listed off, dread growing with every word.

“Oh, shit.” Kristoff swore, and then started laughing helplessly.

“What?” Anna pestered him.

“I’m in love with _two_ people who thought it was a good idea to get married to someone they _just met that day_. I have _terrible_ taste.” Kristoff explained, shaking his head. Hans blinked at him, taken aback, but then Anna snorted, and Hans just couldn’t help himself, and smiled a little wickedly.

His tone, however, was perfectly mild and innocent as he pointed out; “My parents didn’t even meet each other until their wedding day.”

“Wait, what?” Anna asked him, startled.

“Really?” Kristoff demanded in disbelief.

“Oh, yes.” Hans said, looking between the pair of them with his eyebrows raised. “Most royal marriages are arranged, you know.” From the looks on their faces, Hans guessed they actually hadn’t known that. “That’s not to say they’re all loveless business arrangements, my parents love each other dearly, but from the way they tell it, that was _not_ the case when they were first married.”

“So… wait, when you asked me to marry you…” Anna began, slowly. “You weren’t asking because you were in love with me?”

Well, that was a loaded question and a half. Any mirth Hans had been feeling at their obvious confusion died, and he looked at Anna for a long moment, trying to weigh his words carefully and read her emotions from her eyes. “I asked because I thought I _could_ love you, given time” He said finally, holding her gaze and praying she would believe him.

Anna stared back, unreadable, before she huffed faintly. “Now I feel _really_ silly.”

“Enthusiastic.” Hans countered fondly.

“Anyway, silly isn’t always bad.” Kristoff added.

Anna beamed, pink-faced and delighted, and smacked a kiss onto their cheeks, one after the other. Then she released them, but only for as long as it took to link her arms through theirs and begin towing them back towards the castle. Hans shared an indulgent look with Kristoff over the top of her head, and let her drag them off.


	14. Chapter 13

Anna was happy. That was the important thing to remember, even if Elsa couldn’t help feeling a creeping sense of dread about the situation. Crossing her arms on the windowsill, Elsa leaned out of the window, watching Arendelle go about its business below her, streets bustling and loud. The indistinct chatter drifting up from the crowds was even more enthusiastic than usual, courtesy, Elsa suspected, of the Royal Announcement that had been in the papers that morning.

Hans had written a truly beautiful apology for his behaviour at the coronation to go along with Elsa’s own recounting of the events that had followed, mostly drawn off Anna’s stories. Most of which sounded too ridiculous to be true, even though Elsa knew her sister wouldn’t lie about that sort of thing. It made Elsa go cold inside just thinking about the things her sister had faced without Elsa being any the wiser, that she could have died and Elsa wouldn’t even have known until it was too late to do anything.

Laughter drifted up to her from one of the courtyards below, and knocked her out of her dark thoughts. After banishing the frost off the windowsill, she leaned over to see who had saved her from her moment of panic. It took her a moment to spot them, but then movement caught her eye, and she saw Sven bouncing around one of the fountains, chasing Olaf, and being followed by Kristoff and Hans, who had their heads bent together over something as they ambled.

For all that Elsa had her reservations about this relationship Anna was getting herself into, she _was_ glad to see that, for now, at least, her caution seemed to be unwarranted. Hans and Kristoff were just as close to each other as they were to Anna, and Hans was recovering from his frozen heart remarkably well, and no one seemed to be getting left out. That thought had Elsa casting about for Anna, but she couldn’t find her in the courtyard below, and she frowned, trying not to let her moment of worry turn into a spiral of alarm.

As if her thoughts had summoned her, a greeting alerted Elsa to Anna’s arrival in the corridor behind her. Smiling, she straightened and turned around. “Anna. I was wondering where you were.” She said as Anna bounced over.

“Really?” Anna asked in surprise, and then she looked out of the window to see what had been holding Elsa’s attention, and made a small noise of understanding. “Oh, yeah. Hans wanted Kristoff to show him those troll books we found, and I got bored.” She said easily. “So I came to find you, and Henrik said you’d gone to stretch your legs.” Then she paused and looked at Elsa, a little of her enthusiastic energy dimming. “What’s wrong?

“It’s nothing.” Elsa assured her, not wanting to trouble Anna with her pointless anxieties.

Anna wrinkled her nose to express her opinion of that answer. “If it’s bothering you, it’s not nothing, Elsa. Talk to me.”

Elsa huffed, half a laugh, half a sigh, and turned back to the window. “I don’t know. I’m just… unsettled, I guess. I was worried about you, while you were away, and I can’t quite stop worrying, even though I know you’re home and safe.”

Anna didn’t answer for a moment, just standing next to her in thoughtful silence. “I was kind of worried that, even after we unfroze Hans’ heart, I still wouldn’t be able to trust him.” She admitted quietly. Elsa looked over, eyebrows knotting up in concern, but Anna didn’t look unhappy or worried at all. She had her chin propped in her hand, elbow braced on the windowsill, and she was looking down at the two men in the courtyard with a soft smile. “But now that I’ve seen him as he really is, _and_ what he’s like when he’s trying to pretend… it’s easy to see the difference. I didn’t think I’d know, but I do.”

Elsa took a moment to think about that, because she wasn’t entirely sure how it related to what she’d said, but in the end, she just smiled, and said with complete sincerity; “I’m glad.”

Anna looked up and grinned. “Yeah. But, I mean, I know it’s not easy for you to just… not worry, even though I don’t really understand, but… I like to think you’d _know_ , if there was something to really worry about, and once you know, there’s pretty much always something you can _do_ about it, so you’re not worrying _then_ either.”

That made Elsa laugh. Trust Anna to simplify it like that. She knew it wouldn’t be that easy, she couldn’t just switch it off like that, but it was a nice way to look at it, and it did help unknot some of the tension sitting thick at the back of her neck. “Thank you, Anna.” She said, soft with fondness and relief.

“Anytime!” Anna chirped happily.

Because they were standing at the window, with one of the better views out across the city, the fjord, and the foothills beyond, they had an excellent view the sudden explosion at the peak of the North Mountain. There was a flash of white light, and then a low, sharp noise like a crack of thunder that echoed across the fjord. Elsa and Anna both went still as they watched with wide, horrified eyes at the storm clouds swirling out from the mountaintop. Elsa’s hands turned white-knuckled on the windowsill.

“What was that?” She asked, voice low and tightly controlled.

Anna made a sound of dismay. “I think… I think that was the Troll Queen.” She said weakly, before rounding on Elsa, a little wild-eyed. Elsa turned to her with trepidation rising in her heart and catching her breath in the back of her throat. “Elsa, I think- I thought the ice that we got out of Hans _disappeared_ , but what if-”

Elsa’s head whipped back to the view of the gathering blizzard. She thought of everything Anna had told her about this Troll Queen, about her arrogance and pride. There was little doubt in her mind about where the Troll Queen would head next, given enough power to conjure a blizzard like that, and her eyes dropped to the city sprawling out between herself and the creature she’d inherited her powers from.

It wasn’t even a decision. She turned on her heel and ran for the castle gates, hiking her skirts up in a very unladylike fashion to speed her progress. Anna yelped, and bolted after her, shouting her name. “Send out the guard! Have them tell everyone in the city to _stay inside_! Get as many people from the outskirts to take refuge in the castle as you can, and anyone who doesn’t have anywhere else to go!” She shouted over her shoulder.

“Right!” Anna agreed, and darted off to do just that.

When Elsa reached the gate, she almost ran into Kristoff and Hans. The latter was pale with alarm, but he had his hand on the hilt of his sword, and when he met Elsa’s gaze, there was steely determination there instead of the fear she expected. “Help Anna get all the citizens into their homes, or into the castle.” She ordered them.

Hans bowed shallowly, but Kristoff looked stubborn. Elsa gave him a fierce stare, because whether he liked it or not, he was still injured, and Elsa was the only one among them who actually stood a chance of stopping the Troll Queen. “You shouldn’t go up against her alone.” Kristoff protested, glowering right back, even though he sounded more petulant than anything.

“I can handle her.” Elsa assured him, hoping to god it was true.

Kristoff didn’t look like he was buying it, but before he could argue any further, Hans caught his elbow in a light grip. “Your Queen gave you a command.” He reminded him, gentle and amused. Kristoff huffed, but nodded his agreement, and both men turned towards the city.

Elsa followed them across the bridge, but instead of heading into the city proper, she headed down towards the docks, where she could put herself between the city and the approaching storm. The people stared as she bolted past, alarmed, and once or twice, Elsa slowed just long enough to order them to get inside. They took one look at the storm, then at their Queen with ice-powers who could stop a normal blizzard in its tracks without effort, and then obeyed without question. Hopefully, they would also warn their neighbours and friends, but Elsa didn’t stay long enough to see if they did.

By the time she reached the docks, the storm was almost on top of them. Icy winds whipped her hair and her dress as she stood on the stone pier, looking out into what appeared to be a wall of white sweeping down across the fjord. Elsa took a second to steady herself, because she knew this wasn’t going to be like stopping her own blizzard. But that was the only experience she had to draw on, so that was where she was going to start.

She reached inside herself, focusing on Anna, on Henrik and the housekeeper Gertrude, on the people in the city behind her, who relied her on her and trusted her to lead them and protect them. Using that as an anchor, as a cornerstone, Elsa raised her hands, turned her focus on the blizzard bearing down on her and her people, and willed it to be calm.

The moment she touched the storm, she was overwhelmed with howling, ferocious fury. It made it hard to breathe, hard to remember what was important, but Elsa refused to allow this to sweep her under. She had clawed her way out of her own pit of terror, she wasn’t going to let someone else’s drag her down now. She closed her eyes, brow creasing with focus, as she reminded herself that there were people behind her, and they were hers to protect.

Slowly, inch by inch, the storm settled, the snow ceasing its frantic swirling, and instead settling to drift peacefully through the air. Once it was calmer, Elsa welcomed it, allowed it to slip past her and begin blanketing the city in a soft white carpet. It was too much effort to try and stop it completely, not when she wasn’t the one who’d conjured it. Simply taking control away from the Troll Queen was enough.

On the opposite bank, however, the storm continued to rage, and Elsa straightened, lowering her hands, when she saw a figure stepping out of the obscuring white. It was too far for Elsa to pick out any details, but she watched as the figure approached the shore and raised its arms. With the gesture, the storm swept forwards again, and Elsa was forced to refocus on holding it back. Frost spread out on the stones beneath her feet as she channelled more of her power, creeping tendrils branching out in fractal patterns. Some even slipped down the side of the dock to touch the surface of the water.

Well, Elsa was going to have to face the Troll Queen sooner or later, because they couldn’t keep up this stalemate forever. It might as well be now. She redirected a little more of her power, freezing over the surface of the water until it was solid enough to stand on, and then hopping down off the edge of the dock. She walked out, conjuring up more ice as needed, keeping her eyes on the distant figure and her mind on holding back the storm. She grimaced a little as her power spilled out around her, and the fjord froze over completely for the second time in as many months.

She was almost half way across when the Troll Queen echoed her, and stepped out onto the ice. Elsa could _feel_ the way she was adding her own power to the ice, thickening it and making it creak and groan with the strain of the sudden drop in temperature. They stopped when they were still a fair distance apart, close enough to speak, but only just. The wind around them went still, even though it still howled behind the Troll Queen, and still danced gently behind Elsa. In the still air, tiny shards of ice floated around their feet, too light to settle, glittering brilliantly in the thin sunlight. “That’s _my_ power you’re abusing, girl.” The Troll Queen snarled, marble-like face twisted into an ugly sneer.

Elsa didn’t deign to respond to that. “Cease your attack upon my people and we might be able to negotiate.” She pointed out coolly.

“Why would I wish negotiate with a _thief_?!” The Troll Queen demanded.

“ _I_ stole nothing.” Elsa reminded her, arching one eyebrow to convey exactly how unimpressed she was with the tantrum the other woman was throwing. “I’ve had these powers for as long as I could remember. Perhaps, once, they were yours, but now they’re mine, and I won’t hesitate to use them to stop you from hurting the people under my protection.”

The Troll Queen didn’t respond with words, she just gestured sharply towards Elsa, and a whirlwind of ice shards shot across the ice between them. The diamond dust in the air whipped into a frenzy as Elsa flung her hands up to block and redirect the attack. It dived to either side of her, sweeping around to curl in behind her, and Elsa drove it out again with a flick of her wrists, back towards the Troll Queen. As they flew, she sharpened the shards of ice into tiny pinpoint blades.

She must have sensed it, because the Troll Queen summoned up a wall of ice, and the miniature ice storm buried itself in the barrier. A moment later, the wall shattered into jagged teeth twice the height of a man, which tipped over and arrowed towards Elsa. They were too big for her to dodge, and she wasn’t confident she could make a barrier that was strong enough to withstand them, but there was one thing she could do, if she could just wrest control of the ice away from the Troll Queen.

It hurt, in some oddly undefinable way, to open herself up to the sheer rage of the Troll Queen’s power and instead of responding with her own fear and fury, to keep her mind on Anna’s smiling face, on the children who laughed in delight when she iced over the streets, to the relief on people’s faces when they came to her and she took their problems seriously. She pulled that feeling up inside her, and the icy projectiles melted into water that sloshed over her ankles but did no harm.

The Troll Queen reared back like she’d been struck, staggering back a step before the fear in her eyes hardened into hatred. “You-!” She spat, gesturing upwards and making the ice beneath Elsa heave and crack. Elsa countered with her own power, sending it spreading through the ice beneath her feet to steady it and seal the cracks, smoothing out the flaws in its crystalline structure until it was almost as clear as glass. “You truly are that _witch’s_ spawn!” The Troll Queen snarled, hurling another barrage of ice at Elsa

Elsa stared at her, momentarily taken aback. Thoughts of her mother still hurt like tearing in her soul even three years after her death, but grief was a part of love, and that made it easy enough to melt this barrage too. “Witch?” She asked. “My mother wasn’t a witch.”

“Oh, she didn’t study the craft, but she was a _natural_.” The Troll Queen sneered, allowing the momentary pause in their battle. “She knew what she was doing when she laid her curse on me! True love’s kiss alone wouldn’t have _stolen my powers_ for her own pathetic little brat. She knew how to manipulate that power to do as she wished!”

Elsa took a couple of steadying breaths, because her mind was spinning. It couldn’t be true, because if her mother had _known_ how love could balance out and overcome her icy powers, why hadn’t she _said anything_ ? She couldn’t have known. She remembered the look on her mother’s face when Elsa had shied away from her touch, heartbreak and desperation, and she _knew_ that her mother wouldn’t have kept silent if there was anything she could have said to help. Holding onto that thought like a lifeline, Elsa glared at the Troll Queen. “Don’t talk about my mother as if she was _anything_ like _you_.” She spat.

The Troll Queen paused, tilting her head to consider Elsa with a nasty gleam in her eyes. “No, she wasn’t. But you are, aren’t you?” She purred viciously. Elsa took a step back in shock. “You might have her _heart_ -” She spat the word like it was a curse. “-but you have my powers. You grew up with them, and they grew with you, didn’t they? Curled around your soul, bleeding over, making you _different_.”

Elsa knew fear, she knew how it tasted, how it stole her breath and twisted in her guts, but she’d never felt hatred like this before. This creature was the source of all her troubles as a child. If she hadn’t taken one look at a fair-haired, blue-eyed Prince and decided she wanted him, Elsa would never have spent all her teenage years locked away for fear of hurting anyone else like she’d hurt Anna. She loved her magic, hadn’t ever _really_ wanted to trade it away, but that hadn’t stopped her dreaming of being without that curse more than anything else for years. And to have the Troll Queen standing there _gloating_ about how this power had ruined Elsa’s life made something go very still and cold in Elsa’s heart.

It couldn’t entirely overwhelm her, though, because she was still holding the memory of her mother’s love close in her heart. But the feelings built on each other, fed each other, and spilled over into Elsa’s powers, crackling out through the ice at her feet and the diamond dust in the air. She didn’t quite know what she was doing, moving on instinct more than intention, as she lifted both hands before her and _pulled_ at the ice inside her.

She’d made living creatures of snow and ice only twice before. Once, with Olaf, full of breathless joy at her sudden newfound freedom and the fragile, precious delight at her powers, and once, full of fear and agony and the desperation to just make the whole world _go away_. She still couldn’t _believe_ that Anna had decided to stick to Olaf’s little nickname, and dub the giant spiky snowman _Marshmallow_.

 _These_ creatures were more ice than snow, somewhat wolf-shaped but much too large, too angular, too broad in the chest, and they were _beautiful_. They were all of her hatred and love and furious desire to protect poured into the ice and given form, given shape and will and spirit. They howled like the wind and leapt for the Troll Queen, a full baker’s dozen of them bounding through the glittering snow with teeth bared and claws ready.

The Troll Queen stumbled backwards, shocked and alarmed. She conjured up a hasty wall of ice, but it hardly slowed the direwolves for long. Some climbed it in a couple of bounds, claws digging deep into the ice, while others sped around it. Elsa shattered the wall once the last wolf had leapt from the top, so that she could keep an eye on the battle. The first wolf reached the Troll Queen, who was still staggering backwards, even as she hurled icy projectiles at the wolf. It snapped its jaws at her, but she ducked and darted _in_ instead of back, to slam her hand against the direwolf’s chest.

The moment she touched it, Elsa could feel the pull on her power. The wolf howled and thrashed, but the Troll Queen hung on, draining the life Elsa had fed into her creations, trying to steal it for her own. It began to crack, fissures like spiderwebs fracturing out across its icy hide, the light of its eyes beginning to dim, and it thrashed hard in an attempt to free itself.

An idea struck Elsa, and she had no idea if it would work, but she had to try. She ran forwards, even as the wolf shook the Troll Queen off and backed away, snarling like the grinding of ice against ice. The rest of the pack circled, waiting for an opening that wouldn’t leave them vulnerable to that life-draining touch. They barely reacted to Elsa at all, even as she darted between them, their entire focus on the threat Elsa had created them to fight.

The Troll Queen whirled around to face Elsa, something viciously satisfied flashing across her face as Elsa came within arm’s reach. She threw a punch that Elsa only just managed to evade, then pulled a spike out of the ice right underneath where Elsa was standing. She stumbled back, forcing the ice back down, and paying for her distraction when the Troll Queen grabbed her by the throat.

“I have you now, mortal.” The Troll Queen declared as Elsa struggled for breath. It wasn’t even entirely because of the fist clenching around her windpipe, because there was also a feeling like claws digging somewhere deeper than flesh, hooks gouging her in an attempt to rip out some vital part of her very being.

“Wrong-” Elsa choked out, bring her hands up to wrap around the Troll Queen’s wrist. “-way round.” She finished, and then closed her eyes to focus. She followed the pain back to its origin, reached back along that connection forged by skin-to-skin contact, and returned the favour. She reached out to that power that was so much like her own, just a little left of center, but still the same thing at its heart, and pulled on it, tugged and coaxed and drew it in towards herself.

“No!” The Troll Queen shouted, and she sounded desperate, truly frightened. She let go of Elsa, who staggered a little, head spinning with the sudden return of much needed air, but refused to relinquish her own grip on the Troll Queen’s arm. From beneath her hands, marble-like skin began to turn grey and cracked, a new crust of real stone spilling out across living flesh. Around them, the blizzard died, the sudden hush almost as loud in the absence of sound as the howling winds had been before.

The Troll Queen grabbed at Elsa’s arm and pried one of her hands off despite Elsa’s best efforts, but she couldn’t keep Elsa off her without touching her, and the stone began to spill out over that hand, too. “Stop it!” The Troll Queen screamed, shaking her arms violently in an attempt to throw Elsa off. She fought to hold on, but splitting her attention between both the physical struggle and the one between their wills meant that something had to give.

She lost her grip, staggering and falling to the ice, just barely getting her hands under her before she hit the ground. She looked up even as she clambered to her feet, and saw the Troll Queen backing away, a wild look in her eyes. Then she turned to run.

Elsa had a split moment of indecision. She could let her flee, assured that she knew the consequences of threatening Arendelle again. It would be the kind thing to do, the merciful thing. Or she could pursue her, continue draining her power until she petrified to solid stone again, like Anna had described, and make sure once and for all that she could never bother Arendelle ever again. _That_ would be the smart thing to do.

In the end, Elsa didn’t really get to make the choice. As one, the wolves surged forwards, sensing weakness in their prey, and one of them caught the Troll Queen with a swipe of its claws, tripping her and scoring shallow cuts along her leg, and then slammed a paw down on her back, pinning her to the ice. Elsa was still frozen with indecision, until the Troll Queen began to drain the life out of the creature, and Elsa lurched into action.

She threw herself forwards and laid her own hands beside the wolf’s paws, doing the only thing she could to stop the Troll Queen from killing one of the creatures she had made. The Troll Queen thrashed and flailed and screamed, and Elsa got more than one bruise, but the wolf refused to let up, and the Troll Queen’s movements got more and more sluggish as Elsa pulled every last drop of magic out of her, and she returned to the stone from which she’d been born.

She felt the last trace of it curl out reluctantly to settle alongside the rest of the well inside Elsa’s soul, and slumped back onto her heels, feeling oddly shaky as the reality of what had just happened sank in. She’d… she’d technically killed someone. Perhaps not entirely. If this was the same as the state she’d been in before, then an offering of her old magic could revive her, but…

“Elsa!”

Elsa’s head whipped up, and she saw Anna running across the ice, followed closely by Kristoff, Hans, Rune, and a handful of other people, castle staff and citizens alike. “Anna, what-?” Elsa began, staggering to her feet and almost falling before the nearest wolf stepped in to prop her up. She leaned against its side, glad that it was still alive, even if she still wasn’t sure how to feel about what she’d just done. “Elsa! Are you okay?!” Anna demanded, skidding to a clumsy stop in front of Elsa with her hands fluttering in the air like she wanted to hug her but was afraid of hurting her.

“I’m fine, Anna, just… a bit tired.” Elsa admitted with a warm smile. It was a lie. She wasn’t tired at all. She felt like she wouldn’t need to sleep for a week, actually, but she was still shaky and dazed, so it was a good enough excuse.

Anna’s reservations vanished, and she flung her arms around Elsa. “That was amazing! You were amazing!” She enthused in Elsa’s ear, squeezing her tightly.

“You shouldn’t have been _watching_.” Elsa protested, although there wasn’t much force behind it.

Predictably, Anna only scoffed at that, withdrawing from the hug to flap a dismissive hand in the air, and then turning to the wolf Elsa was leaning on. “And you were amazing too!” She said, voice slipping into high, cooing tones. “Yes, you were! Yes, you were!”

Elsa stared in amused befuddlement as Anna started petting the giant, spiky direwolf, whose shoulder was level with Anna’s head, and whose mouth was big enough to eat her in about three bites. The fondness filling her ached a little, because she wasn’t entirely sure she deserved Anna’s unconditional acceptance, and she also wasn’t sure if Anna quite understood what she had done. Her sister could be strangely oblivious at the worst moments.

She stepped away from the wolf’s side, and found herself looking down at the vaguely human-shaped lump of stone lying on the ice. She balled her shaking hands into fists, as if that might hide the tremors from the onlookers. “Your Majesty?” A quiet voice asked from beside her. Then Hans cleared his throat, and dared “Elsa?”

“I killed her.” Elsa found herself saying against her will.

Hans blinked twice, and then looked down at the stone at their feet. For a long moment, Elsa thought he was going to argue, to point out that she’d been made of _stone_ , it wasn’t _murder_. But then he just nodded. “Yes.” He said, and Elsa had to press her lips into a thin line against the sudden burning in her eyes. Hans put a hand on her shoulder. “But I don’t think you did the wrong thing.”

“Really?” Elsa asked, a little more sharply than she meant to, slanting a look at Hans.

He didn’t rise to the bait. There was something sad in his eyes as he watched her, but it was a hard kind of sadness, almost steely. “She wouldn’t have stopped. Maybe you frightened her enough to make her retreat for now, but…” He paused, and then smiled grimly. “A frozen heart can’t live and let live. She would never be able to forget or forgive your existence, and she’d try to kill you again, and again, and again, until either you died, or she did.”

Slowly, Elsa nodded, and managed a slightly wobbly smile. “Thank you, Hans.”

Hans shrugged one shoulder. “It’s the least I can do.”

Elsa considered that, and decided that, while she didn’t really agree, it wasn’t her place to tell Hans that his guilt was misplaced. He wouldn’t believe her until he managed to forgive himself. But she could let him know that she forgave him. Just as soon as she’d cleaned up here. “Stand back.” She murmured to him, and once Hans had stepped back, she reached out with her power, and pulled it out of the ice beneath the Troll Queen. It melted, thinning and thinning until it cracked under her weight and she vanished beneath the water, sinking rapidly down to the bottom of the fjord, where hopefully she would stay for a long damned time. Then she pulled herself up and turned towards the crowd that was being cajoled back towards the shore by Henrik and Gertrude.

She paused beside Hans. “By the way,” she began with a hint of a smirk, which earned her a wary sideways stare, “the next time you ask for my blessing, the answer will be yes.” Thoroughly enjoying his flabbergasted look, she headed back to shore to calm her people.


	15. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are, at the end~ Thank you to everyone who commented or kudos'd this fic <3

The first look Hans got of the Southern Isles since he left only came as the ship was already bumping gently against the dock, and the crew exploded into a flurry of motion, securing the ship into place. He was nervous for reasons he couldn’t fully explain to be returning home several months after the last time he’d been here, heart frozen and in disgrace, so he’d tried to distract himself with reading one of the magic books Princess Rapunzel had delivered to them. It had worked fairly well, but then the sudden activity of the crew had made him look up, and his heart had leapt into his throat at the sight of his home.

It looked just the same as he remembered it, right down to the ring of guards around the dock, and the three red-headed men waiting within that ring for his arrival. Blowing out a steadying breath, Hans flipped his book shut and rose to stand, pulling composure up around him as he went. Any dignity he might have managed was entirely ruined a moment later when he heard Anna yelling “Hi, Rune!” and looked over to see her leaning precariously over the railing to wave energetically.

Laughing to himself, Hans tucked his book under his arm, and went to join her, lifting one hand in a wave of his own as he stepped up to the railing. Anna turned to beam at him, and then directed that smile over his shoulder, which was how Hans knew that Kristoff was behind him. “Come on!” She enthused. “I want to see your home, Hans, I’m so excited!”

Hans sometimes felt like he hadn’t stopped smiling once in the last two months. Just being around Anna and Kristoff was enough to infect him with their easy comfort and enthusiasm. He offered Anna his arm. “Shall we, my lady?” He asked courteously, just to see her blush and giggle as she tucked her hand over his elbow. He turned and offered his other arm to Kristoff. “Shall we, my lord?”

Kristoff spluttered what was probably supposed to be a denial while Anna collapsed against Hans’ side, cackling. Finally, Kristoff relented, and linked his arm through Hans’, and Anna almost towed them down the gangway. By the time their feet were back on dry land, Hans had gone right back to being nervous, and the feeling was only exacerbated by the incredulous expressions the elder two of his brothers were wearing.

“Hi!” Anna said again, and then seemed to remember that this was, technically, an official royal moment. “Um, hello.” She greeted, freeing herself from Hans’ arm to dip into a curtsey.

“Princess Anna, welcome to the Southern Isles.” Levi greeted crisply, bowing in return. Then he turned a dubious, judgemental look on Kristoff. “And welcome to you, Mr Kristoff.”

“Right.” Kristoff said, equally dubious and judgemental.

Rune rolled his eyes. “Oh, for…” He huffed, and stepped forwards to give Hans a hug. Hans returned it with no small sense of relief and gratitude for Rune’s open-minded nature and easy acceptance. “Welcome home, brother. It’s good to see you again.”

“And you.” Hans said, more sincerely than he ever had before in his life. Then he released Rune and decided that if no one else was going to do the polite thing and introduce everyone, then he would have to. “Anna, Kristoff, you’ve already met Rune, of course, but these are my older brothers, Prince Levi, and Prince Erik.” He gestured first at one, then the other. “Levi, Erik, you of course know that these are my lovers, Princess Anna of Arendelle, and Kristoff.” Sven chose that moment to bound down the gangway and almost bowl Kristoff over in his attempt to see who they were meeting. “And his noble steed, Sven.” Hans added, keeping a straight face only through years of practice.

“Lovers?” Erik echoed, eyebrows raised and a laugh caught in his eyes. “Plural? Really?”

Hans raised his eyebrows right back, but he was sure his own eyes were cold, not laughing. He got half a syllable into an answer before Anna jumped in, bristling. “Why are you pretending to be surprised?” She demanded, rolling her eyes. “I know Hans told you in his first letter home.”

“And I _did_ tell you.” Rune added mildly. “Repeatedly.”

“Well, yeah, but…” Erik shrugged. “It’s not exactly the done thing, is it? I would have expected something like this from Lars, maybe, but Hans has always been such a goody-two-shoes.”

“Let me guess, Lars is even more proud now?” Hans asked, a little more sharply than he meant to.

Erik burst out laughing, Rune looked away carefully, and Levi scowled so darkly that Hans was a little surprised he didn’t manage to set something on fire. “ _Lars_ is being a complete baby about it.” He spat, and then visibly pulled himself together, turned sharply on his heel, and made for the carriage. “Let’s go. Everyone else is waiting at the Castle.”

They piled in, Hans waiting so that he could offer Anna a hand up, and then smiling despite himself when Kristoff stubbornly offered _him_ a hand up. Once they were settled, and the carriage had started off with Sven trotting happily alongside, Hans returned to the conversation. “What do you mean, Lars is being a baby about this?” He asked, looking between his brothers.

“Oh, he’s pretending that he thinks it’s _disgraceful_ even though it’s so obvious he’s just pissy because _he’s_ never managed to get two people into his bed at the same time.” Erik said flippantly. Kristoff’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head, a moment before he snorted his way into laughter. Hans glanced sideways at Anna, to find that her jaw was hanging open, but she was being infected by Kristoff’s amusement and he thought he spotted the beginnings of a grin before she covered her mouth with one hand.

“How much of a gauntlet are we going to have to run, exactly?” Hans asked. He was glad that Anna and Kristoff were taking Erik’s crass sense of humour well, but he was already dreading the reception he was going to get from his second-eldest brother. Lars was usually good-natured, but when something did actually get under his skin, he could be awfully cruel.

“It shouldn’t be too bad.” Rune reassured him with an encouraging smile.

Levi snorted. “There was almost a fist-fight over the dinner table the night Rune returned and confirmed what you’d written in your letter.” He informed Hans bluntly. Hans winced, but he listened attentively as Levi drew out the battle lines like the soldier he was. “Oren thinks it’s a dreadful scandal, and he’s going to complain at length about the political ramifications.” Levi rolled his eyes to convey his opinion of _that_. “Lars is being ridiculously petty, you know how he gets, and Leif is following his lead like the ignorant little shit he is. Nils is going to pester you with invasive questions until he runs out of breath, and Finn is going to mock you.” Levi paused to think, and then shrugged. “Everyone else either doesn’t care, or thinks it’ll probably be good for you.”

Hans was honestly surprised that so few of his brothers seemed to have a problem with it. “Even Karl?” He asked warily. Levi just snorted, and Erik laughed, so Hans looked to Rune for an explanation. He was a little alarmed to find Rune beaming at him.

“Karl was the one who threw a punch at Lars for, uh, insinuating unpleasant things about your relationship.” Rune informed him. “It would have turned into a brawl if Mother hadn’t stepped in and told everyone to mind their own business.”

“I like him.” Anna declared staunchly.

Hans chuckled a little, wincing as he remembered just how hard she could punch. “Please try not to punch any of my brothers unless they _really_ deserve it. I think we’ve had enough diplomatic incidents for one year.” He pleaded.

“I don’t punch _anyone_ unless they really deserve it.” Anna replied, wrinkling her nose at him.

“Please don’t start any fights you can’t win, then.” Kristoff suggested, giving her a pointed look.

Anna flushed. “That was one time!”

“That was part of a general trend.” Kristoff retorted without missing a beat.

“Do I want to know?” Hans asked, looking between them.

Kristoff and Anna shared a look, and then Anna covered her face with both palms while Kristoff turned to Hans. “Did you ever meet Marshmallow? The snowman Elsa made to guard the palace?” He asked, and Hans’ eyes widened as he turned an alarmed stare on Anna. “He tossed us out of the palace, so this one-” Kristoff pointed an accusing finger at Anna. “-tossed a snowball at his back. He grew spikes, and chased us over a two-hundred foot cliff.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to just lie down and take being tossed around like a rag doll!” Anna protested, but she looked reluctantly embarrassed when she lifted her face out of her hands. “That’s just not an okay thing to do!”

“You’re entirely correct.” Hans assured her, catching her hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it. “But perhaps throwing things isn’t the most sensible response.” Anna harrumphed, and turned a stubborn glare on the ceiling. Hans sighed and shared a look with Kristoff full of fond resignation. There was something almost like gratitude in Kristoff’s eyes, but softer, sweeter, and it made Hans flush just a little as he remembered all over again why he was falling so hard for these two.

“Oh my god, get a room.” Erik said abruptly.

Hans startled, and turned to stare at his brother, taken more off guard than he would like to admit. Rune whined a protest at Erik’s insensitivity. Levi, meanwhile, rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth. “Grow up, Erik.” He snapped.

Erik shot him a glare. “Don’t act like you reacted with grace and poise. Besides, I’m not going to sit here in awkward silence while they make googly eyes at each other. They can do that on their own time, when we don’t have to be subjected to it.”

“The _only_ one of you who’s reacted to this with any sense at all is _Sven_.” Levi retorted on a growl. Kristoff twitched, face scrunching up in confusion. “Because no matter what any of us might think, it’s _not our business_.”

“Sven?” Anna asked, before the argument could continue.

“Another of my brothers.” Hans explained quickly. “Not the reindeer.”

“Oh.” Anna and Kristoff said together.

Thankfully, the rest of them were saved from having to recover the conversation from that detour when the carriage slowed to a halt within the castle keep. Levi wasted no time in shoving the door open and climbing out, but Hans took a moment to compose himself while Erik and Rune followed Levi out. Anna and Kristoff noticed his nerves, and they both reached out to grab hold of one of his hands. “It’ll be fine.” Anna assured him with a confidence Hans just couldn’t share. “They’re your family, and they love you.” She added, and then her expression turned fierce. “And if they don’t remember that right now, I’ll just have to remind them.” She released his hand to crack her knuckles ominously.

Then, before either Hans or Kristoff could beg her, yet again, not to actually start any fights, she smacked a kiss to Hans’ cheek and scooted out of the carriage. Hans wasn’t sure if that had helped at all, or just made his nerves worse. “Okay, so I’m not as optimistic as Anna.” Kristoff began, scrubbing one hand through his hair, while the other remained curled around Hans’ in a comforting hold. “But… whatever happens, you’re not alone, okay? We’re… I mean, we’re here for you, whenever you need us. Okay?”

Something unclenched in Hans’ chest, and he smiled in relief, closing his eyes and pressing a kiss to Kristoff’s knuckles. “Thank you.” He breathed. Kristoff gave his hand a gentle squeeze in reply, and then Hans forced himself to get out of the carriage before the delay became _too_ conspicuous.

“You actually brought them _both_!”

“ _Really_ , Hans?”

“What were you _thinking_?!”

There were more shouts, but Hans ignored them. It wasn’t like anyone was going to hear him over the ruckus anyway. Karl grabbed him in a hug, Finn punched him in the arm, Emil tousled his hair, and Hans endured it all with long-suffering resignation.

“You have no idea what sort of political ramifications-”

“Do you really think you’re going to get away with parading your unnaturalness around-”

“You’re such an idiot, Hans, this is going to be a total disaster-”

Hans carefully didn’t let his bland expression slip, even though he wanted to wince. He could see Anna and Kristoff being dragged into the crowd as well, and he worried a little that Anna looked rather overwhelmed by the onslaught of people and noise. Kristoff was managing better, but he had made the mistake of trying to answer the questions and statements being thrown at him, and getting more and more frustrated as no one waited for an answer.

“Leave him alone, for heaven’s sake, it’s not-”

“Well, _I_ think it’s really romantic and-”

“Wouldn’t it have been easier to keep one a secret and just marry-”

“Romance has nothing to do with it, it’s reckless and irresponsible-”

“ _ENOUGH!_ ”

The silence was so sudden and complete you could have heard a pin drop. Every single one of the thirteen Princes knew better than to say another word when their mother used her battlefield voice on them. Hans looked up, over Leif’s shoulder, to see his mother striding down the steps from the front doors of the castle, her white-streaked auburn hair pulled back into a rough chignon and her sabre hung from her waist telling Hans that she’d just come from the practice hall.

“Mother.” He greeted, just a touch warily, as his brothers shuffled out of the way.

Queen Freydis put her hands on his shoulders and studied him intently. Hans was of a height with her, but that look made him feel all of ten years old and half her height again. “You look better.” She decided with a smile, and pulled him into a hug. Hans hugged her back, a lump in his throat. The moment of tenderness didn’t last long. Freydis released him, stepping back, spine straight and eyebrow arched. “Now. Introduce me to your lovers.”

Hans glanced around to find Anna and Kristoff, and they stepped over, looking alternately wary and curious. “Mother, may I present Kristoff, and Princess Anna of Arendelle?” He asked, gesturing to them. “Anna, Kristoff, this is my mother; Her Majesty Freydis Westergaard, Queen of the Southern Isles.”

Anna dipped a neat curtsey, and Kristoff bowed awkwardly. Freydis studied them, unhurried and critical, and Hans had to bite his tongue to keep from trying to fill the silence. He could feel all of his brothers holding their breath, too, because they all knew that their mother was the one who had final say on what opinion they were allowed to have in public.

“Do not,” Freydis began, crisp and stern, “hurt my son. Are we clear?”

Anna blinked twice. “Very clear, um, Your Majesty.”

“We’ll do our best.” Kristoff said, perfectly sincere.

Freydis nodded once, and then smiled. “In that case, welcome to the family.” She said, putting a hand on one of their shoulders each. “Come. We should discuss the wedding. I don’t know that we have a bishop in the Southern Isles that will bless a union of this sort, but I’m sure we can rustle one up from _somewhere_ , and the sooner we make it official, the better.”

Kristoff choked. Hans moved to his side in mild concern. “Well.” He rasped helplessly. “At least _you_ came by it _honestly_.” Hans and Anna shared a look, and then laughed, ignoring the confused looks they were getting. Kristoff didn’t, though, he looked up and met Freydis’s eyes. “It’s been _two months_. Okay, that’s better than _a day_ -” He shot a look at his giggling lovers, and then returned his pleading gaze to the Queen. “-but it’s not- We’re not-”

“Are you trying to tell me you’re not _serious_ about your relationship with my son?” Freydis demanded archly.

“No!” Kristoff protested, throwing his arms in the air. “But we need _time_ , to- to _get to know each other_. That’s how relationships _work_. We have to learn how to live with each other, how to _coexist_ , how to support each other and not stifle each other and- and that’s complicated enough with two people, it’s even more complicated with three. Rushing into things is just a _recipe_ for disaster! You’re all insane!” He burst out, and then clapped his hands over his mouth as though abruptly remembering who he was talking to. Hans wondered if he was more worried about insulting the Queen, or about insulting Hans’ mother, and suspected it was probably the latter.

“You have very good taste, Hans. He’s a sensible one, he’ll do you good.” Freydis informed him proudly, and Hans flushed pink to the tips of his ears. Kristoff gaped as she turned back to him. With a gesture, Freydis drew the entire crowd back towards the castle doors, sweeping them along with her as she set off inside, although her gaze and words were completely focused on Kristoff. “You’re entirely correct, of course, but unfortunately, Kristoff, you are now stepping onto the stage of world politics, and any hesitation on your part will be seen as shame, and they will tear you apart for it if they can.”

“Who is ‘they’, and what are they going to do, exactly? Declare war because we’re in love?!” Kristoff demanded.

“I confess, I’m not up to date on Arendelle’s politics, but I can think of several countries who would _certainly_ try to depose and possibly execute _me_ if I did anything as ‘immoral’ as love two people at once. Ranska, for certain.” Freydis answered him briskly. “And then _I_ would have to start a war over it, and my husband gets migraines when I do that.”

“That’s _stupid_.”

“Yes, politics are.”

The debate faded as Hans hung back with Anna, and Freydis and Kristoff marched ahead, their matching frustration lending them speed and purpose, despite the fact that their destination was simply the dining hall. “Hans?” Anna said, in an oddly quiet voice. Hans looked to her in concern, and saw that her eyes were _sparkling_. “Your mum is _amazing_.” She breathed.

Hans had a sudden vision of his mother teaching Anna the art of the sword, and the spear, and possibly the mace as well, and wondered if he was more terrified or awed by the mental image. “She’ll be flattered to hear you think so.” Hans said, a little weakly.

She was, when Hans relayed the moment to her over the formal banquet put together for his return. And she did offer to teach Anna swordsmanship, and Kristoff looked just as frightened and stunned breathless by the idea as Hans had been. Then he visibly decided not to think about it in public, and stubbornly went back to arguing with Freydis, oblivious to the shocked stares he was getting from the nobles who were already resentful enough of being shoved one place-setting further down by some commoner.

Hans only managed to extract him from his mother’s clutches well after dinner, and only because his father helped distract his mother. Kristoff looked frazzled as Hans showed him through the castle to the guest suites prepared for him and Anna. “Are you alright? My mother didn’t permanently damage you, did she?” Hans asked, caught somewhere between worried, amused, and fond.

“No, no.” Kristoff assured him. “I just never realised politics were so… complicated.”

“Politics is mostly about people, and people are always complicated.” Hans replied sympathetically, although there was a weary edge to his voice he didn’t bother to hide, not from Kristoff. Said man snorted with agreement, and rubbed a hand over his face.

Hans reached out and touched his arm, more worried, now. Krsitoff turned into the touch, and then stopped walking to wrap his arms around Hans and hide his face in his hair. Hans returned the embrace, wondering if he was going to have to try and convince his mother to lay off for a while in Kristoff’s stead. “It’s worth it.” Kristoff said, muffled, but with conviction. “You two are worth it, even if it’s annoying.”

“I-” Hans began, but he didn’t actually know what to say to that. “Thank you.”

Kristoff laughed a little, awkward and sheepish, and let go. “Come on, we should- Anna’s waiting for us.” Hans nodded, and they continued on. When they reached the guest rooms, Anna must have heard them from her own, because she burst into Kristoff’s suite mere seconds after Hans had shown Kristoff inside.

“Well?” Anna asked brightly, a wicked gleam in her eyes. At their puzzled looks of inquiry, she only looked more mischievous. “ _Are_ we getting married, or what?”


End file.
